Slow secondary fluorescence kinetics associated with the onset of photosynthetic carbon assimilation in intact isolated chloroplasts

Abstract

Experiments with carefully isolated, largely intact chloroplasts, capable of fast rates of CO 2 -dependent O 2 evolution, show that the fall in chlorophyll a fluorescence (from the early maxima reached immediately after illumination) is interrupted by a ‘shoulder’ which is associated with the exponential increase in the rate of O 2 evolution. The length of this induction period was increased by storage, by decreased temperature, by increased orthophosphate concentration in the assay medium or by the presence of D, L-glyceraldehyde. It could also be shortened by the addition of 3-phosphoglycerate or dihydroxyacetonephosphate. In each treatment the shoulder in fluorescence shifted so that the association with the period of exponential increase was maintained. When illumination was re-started after a short dark interval, induction was minimal and no shoulder could be discerned, but both the lag in the onset of O 2 evolution and the shoulder were restored when the chloroplasts were resuspended in fresh assay medium during the period of darkness. The relation between chlorophyll a fluorescence and the onset of photosynthetic carbon assimilation is discussed.