Photoinhibition in outdoor Spirulina platensis cultures assessed by polyphasic chlorophyll fluorescence transients

Congming Lu, Avigad Vonshak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

Photoinhibition in outdoor cultures of Spirulina platensis was studied by measuring the polyphasic rise of chlorophyll fluorescence transients, which provide information on the primary photochemistry of PSII. The maximum efficiency of PSII phytochemistry (F(v)/F(m)) declined in response to daily increasing irradiance and recovered as daily irradiance decreased. The greatest inhibition (15%) in F(v)/F(m) was observed at 12:00 hr which responded to the highest irradiance. The absorption flux, the trapping flux, and the electron transport flux per PSII reaction center increased in response to daily increasing irradiance and decreased as irradiance decreased. The daily change in the concentration of PSII reaction centers followed the same pattern as F(v)/F(m). However; no significant changes in the probability of electron transport beyond Q(A) (Ψ(o)) were observed during the day. The results suggest that the decrease in F(v)/F(m) induced by photoinhibition in outdoor Spirulina cultures was a result of the inactivation of PSII reaction centers. The results also suggest that the measurement of polyphasic fluorescence transients is a powerful tool to study the mechanism of photoinhibition in outdoor Spirulina cultures and to screen strains for photoinhibition tolerance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)355-359
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Applied Phycology
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 1999

Keywords

  • Cyanobacterium
  • Photoinhibition
  • Photosystem II
  • Polyphasic fluorescence transient
  • Spirulina platensis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aquatic Science
  • Plant Science

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