Abstract
Chlorophyll, one of the major chloroplast components for photosynthesis, has a positive relationship with the photosynthetic rate. The chlorophyll content is an important assessment parameter in agronomy and plant biology research. This study was conducted to evaluate the natural variation in the chlorophyll content and to determine the differential response of the chlorophyll concentration to dark treatment in a natural population containing 139 maize inbreds. A five-fold higher chlorophyll concentration was measured in the light compared with the dark. Meanwhile, the wide variation in the chlorophyll concentration showed the differential response of the natural maize population to dark. Finally, we identified some inbreds that were highly sensitive to the dark with more than 70% difference between the light and dark treatment, such as Dan598, Zheng29, Zheng35, DH29, and R08, as well as some inbreds that had lower sensitivity to the dark, with less than 35% difference in the chlorophyll content between the light and dark treatment, such as Chuan48-2, 4F1, 303WX, 9642, and LY042.
Highlights
As the most important pigment in the world, chlorophyll (Chl) plays a central role in photosynthesis and is re-How to cite this paper: Aye, N.C., Xu, S.T., Guo, D.W., Shi, Y.Q., Li, Y.N., Li, Y.J. and Xue, J.Q. (2015) Dark Response of Seedlings Evaluated by Chlorophyll Concentration in Maize Natural Population
For the chlorophyll a (Chla), chlorophyll b (Chlb), and Tchl concentrations, there was two-fold difference between the light and dark for the average values; a small difference was observed in Chla/b under light and dark conditions
When we measured the Chla and Chlb percent in Tchl under light and dark conditions, only a small difference was found between the average values
Summary
As the most important pigment in the world, chlorophyll (Chl) plays a central role in photosynthesis and is re-How to cite this paper: Aye, N.C., Xu, S.T., Guo, D.W., Shi, Y.Q., Li, Y.N., Li, Y.J. and Xue, J.Q. (2015) Dark Response of Seedlings Evaluated by Chlorophyll Concentration in Maize Natural Population. As the most important pigment in the world, chlorophyll (Chl) plays a central role in photosynthesis and is re-. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 2209-2219. Excess Chl in its free state produces reactive oxygen species and results in cell death [4]; plant cells must degrade these species through self-metabolism. Green plants contain two major Chl components, chlorophyll a (Chla) and chlorophyll b (Chlb), both with the same absorption spectra [5] [6]. Chla and Chlb function as photoreceptors in photosynthesis. Chla is a unique pigment that exists in all oxygenic photosynthetic organisms [7]. Chlb functions in the light-harvesting Chla/b protein complexes (LHCs) that harvest and transfer light energy to both photosystems [8]
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