Light-induced short-term adaptation mechanisms under redox control in the PS II-LHCII supercomplex: LHC II state transitions and PS II repair cycle.

Abstract

Oxygenic photosynthesis takes place in the thylakoid membranes of cyanobacteria, algae and higher plants. While cyanobacteria have adapted to relatively constant environments, higher plants had to evolve mechanisms to adapt to continuous environmental changes. These include changes in light intensity, temperature and availability of water. One of the great challenges in plant cell biology is therefore to determine the regulatory mechanisms employed by higher plants and some algae to adapt to these constant environmental changes. The particular emphasis of this review is the description and characterisation of light-induced redox-controlled processes regulating the photosynthetic reactions, which involves maintaining maximal electron transport flow through the PS II-Cytb6f-PS I-F0F1ATPase electron transport chain and minimising light-induced oxidative damage to PS II which drives the highly oxidising water-splitting reaction. Two of the mechanisms involved in such short-term regulation processes are known as light harvesting complex II (LHC II) state transitions and photosystem II (PS II) repair cycle. They are followed by, and indeed may be a precondition in order to establish, the onset of the subsequent long-term mechanisms of regulation. In particular, the redox control of LHC II state transitions by reversible phosphorylation has been in the focus of many investigations, leading to many new results demonstrating the complexity of thylakoid-associated redox control mechanisms.