Plastid gene expression is not associated with midday depression in CO₂ assimilation and electron transport

Abstract

To investigate the effect of diurnal variations on chloroplastic electron transport as well as accumulation of gene products associated with it, studies were carried out on Populus deltoides, a tree species. Electron transport studies showed two peak responses as a large diurnal change with pronounced midday depression in whole chain (H₂O→ MV) as well as partial reactions for PSII (H₂O→ PBQ) and PSI (DCPIP→ MV). The electron transport rates first increased from 05:00 h to a maximum at around 09:00 h and then showed a decrease at 13:00 h followed by recovery and further decrease. The pigments associated with electron transport chain did not show any change during the day. Surprisingly midday depression in the accumulation of transcripts and polypeptides related to electron transport was not observed. This suggests that chloroplastic gene expression is not associated with the midday depression observed for both CO₂ assimilation and electron transport. Studies on the transcripts of psbD/C operon during the day showed that there were differences in the processing pattern although the steady state levels of the processed transcripts of this operon did not show any variation.