Relationship between flavonoids and photoprotection in shade-developed Erigeron breviscapus transferred to sunlight

Abstract

Flavonoids are thought to participate in protection of the photosynthetic apparatus against photoinhibition under excessive light. Flavone glycoside, scutellarin, is a main active ingredient extracted from Erigeron breviscapus, the plant used in Chinese medicine. Shade-developed leaves of E. breviscapus were transferred from shade to full sunlight to quantify a relationship between the concentration of leaf scutellarin and tolerance to high radiation stress or the recovery from photoinhibition. The maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry showed a diurnal fluctuation in both shaded and sunlit leaves throughout the day. It indicated dynamic photoinhibition in the leaves of Erigeron, i.e., higher photoinhibition at solar noon and lower one in the morning and late afternoon. The sun-developed leaves reached the higher scutellarin content and values of nonphotochemical quenching coefficient with a lower degree of photoinhibition than the shade-developed leaves. When the shade-developed leaves were transferred to full sunlight, the content of scutellarin was declining continuously for 10 d and then was increasing for 15 d. After 50 d, all leaves became the sun-developed leaves with their scutellarin contents of about 138.5 ± 5.2 mg g−1(dry mass, DM) which was significantly higher than that of the shade-developed leaves [107.8 ± 9.8 mg g−1(DM)]. During acclimatization, the degree of photoinhibition was negatively correlated with the scutellarin content. Our results demonstrated a synchronous fluctuation between the flavonoid content and degree of protection against photoinhibition.