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Electron transport kinetics in the diazotrophic cyanobacterium Trichodesmium spp. grown across a range of light levels

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Abstract

The diazotrophic cyanobacterium Trichodesmium is a major contributor to marine nitrogen fixation. We analyzed how light acclimation influences the photophysiological performance of Trichodesmium IMS101 during exponential growth in semi-continuous nitrogen fixing cultures under light levels of 70, 150, 250, and 400 μmol photons m−2 s−1, across diel cycles. There were close correlations between growth rate, trichome length, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen assimilation, and cellular absorbance, which all peaked at 150 μmol photons m−2 s−1. Growth rate was light saturated by about 100 μmol photons m−2 s−1 and was photoinhibited above 150 μmol photons m−2 s−1. In contrast, the light level (I k) to saturate PSII electron transport (e  PSII−1 s−1) was much higher, in the range of 450–550 μmol photons m−2 s−1, and increased with growth light. Growth rate correlates with the absorption cross section as well as with absorbed photons per cell, but not to electron transport per PSII; this disparity suggests that numbers of PSII in a cell, along with the energy allocation between two photosystems and the state transition mechanism underlie the changes in growth rates. The rate of state transitions after a transfer to darkness increased with growth light, indicating faster respiratory input into the intersystem electron transport chain.

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Abbreviations

PAR:

Photosynthetically active radiation (400–700 nm)

PSII:

Photosystem II

PSI:

Photosystem I

PBS:

Phycobilisome

PQ:

Plastoquinone

PUB:

Phycourobilin

PEB:

Phycoerythrobilin

PEC:

Phycoerythrocyanin

PC:

Phycocyanin

ETR:

Electron transport rate

POC:

Particulate organic carbon

PON:

Particulate organic nitrogen

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation (No. 41430967; 41120164007), Joint project of NSFC and Shandong province (Grant No. U1406403), Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS Grant No. XDA11020302, SOA (GASI-03-01-02-04), and China–Japan collaboration project from MOST (S2012GR0290). The visits of D.C., F.F., J.B., and D.H. to Xiamen were supported by MEL’s Visiting Scientist Program and “111” project.

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Correspondence to Kunshan Gao.

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Cai, X., Gao, K., Fu, F. et al. Electron transport kinetics in the diazotrophic cyanobacterium Trichodesmium spp. grown across a range of light levels. Photosynth Res 124, 45–56 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-015-0081-5

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