Photoinduction of cyclosis-mediated interactions between distant chloroplasts

Abstract

Communications between chloroplasts and other organelles based on the exchange of metabolites, including redox active substances, are recognized as a part of intracellular regulation, chlororespiration, and defense against oxidative stress. Similar communications may operate between spatially distant chloroplasts in large cells where photosynthetic and respiratory activities are distributed unevenly under fluctuating patterned illumination. Microfluorometry of chlorophyll fluorescence in vivo in internodal cells of the alga Chara corallina revealed that a 30-s pulse of localized light induces a transient increase (~25%) in F′ fluorescence of remote cell parts exposed to dim background light at a 1.5-mm distance on the downstream side from the illuminated spot in the plane of unilateral cytoplasmic streaming but has no effect on F′ at equal distance on the upstream side. An abrupt arrest of cytoplasmic streaming for about 30s by triggering the action potential extended either the ascending or descending fronts of the F′ fluorescence response, depending on the exact moment of streaming cessation. The response of F′ fluorescence to localized illumination of a distant cell region was absent in dark-adapted internodes, when the localized light was applied within the first minute after switching on continuous background illumination of the whole cell, but it appeared in full after longer exposures to continuous background light. These results and the elimination of the F′ response by methyl viologen known to redirect electron transport pathways beyond photosystem I indicate the importance of photosynthetic induction and the stromal redox state for long-distance communications of chloroplasts in vivo.