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. 1984 Jan;74(1):161–166. doi: 10.1104/pp.74.1.161

Acclimation of Photosynthesis to Low Leaf Water Potentials 1

Mark A Matthews 1,2,3,2, John S Boyer 1,2,3
PMCID: PMC1066643  PMID: 16663372

Abstract

Photosynthesis is reduced at low leaf water potentials (Ψl) but repeated water deficits can decrease this reduction, resulting in photosynthetic acclimation. The contribution of the stomata and the chloroplasts to this acclimation is unknown. We evaluated stomatal and chloroplast contributions when soil-grown sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants were subjected to water deficit pretreatments for 2 weeks. The relationship between photosynthesis and Ψl, determined from gas-exchange and isopiestic thermocouple psychometry, was shifted 3 to 4 bars towards lower Ψl, in pretreated plants. Leaf diffusive resistance was similarly affected. Chloroplast activity, demonstrated in situ with measurements of quantum yield and the capacity to fix CO2 at all partial pressures of CO2, and in vitro by photosystem II activity of isolated organelles, was inhibited at low Ψl but less in pretreated plants than in control plants. The magnitude of this inhibition indicated that decreases in chloroplast activity contributed more than closure of stomata both to losses in photosynthesis and to the acclimation of photosynthesis to low Ψl.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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