title: Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging of photosynthetic activity and pigment contents of the resurrection plants Ramonda serbica and Ramonda nathaliae during dehydration and rehydration.
abstract: The desiccation-tolerant plants of the R. serbica and R. nathaliae are resurrection plants which are able to fully recover their physiological function after anabiosis. A comparison of chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and photosynthetic pigment contents responses of R. serbica and, for the first time, R. nathaliae to dehydration and rehydration were investigated. For this purpose, plants after collection from their natural habitats were kept fully watered for 14 days at natural condition. The experiment was conducted with mature leaves of both species. R. serbica and R. nathaliae plants were dehydrated to 5.88 % and 7.87 % relative water content (RWC) by withholding water for 15 days, afterwards the plants were rehydrated for 72 hours to 94.67 % and 97.02 % RWC. During desiccation, R. serbica plants preserved the chlorophyll content about 84 %, while R. nathaliae about 90 %. During dehydration when RWC were more than 40 %, photochemical efficiency of PSII for photochemistry, the Fv/Fm ratio, decreased about 40 % in R. nathaliae plants, but a strong reduction with 60 % was recorded for R. serbica. Following rehydration, the Fv/Fm ratio recovered more rapidly in R. nathaliae. The higher photosynthetic rates could also be detected via imaging the chlorophyll fluorescence decrease ratio Rfd, which possessed higher values after rehydration leaves of R. nathaliae as compared to R. serbica. The results showed that the photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll contents after rehydration are recovered more rapidly in R. nathaliae in comparison to R. serbica.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Pristina, Str. Mother Teresa, n.n., 10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo ; Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania.
authors.forename: Bekim
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania.
authors.forename: Fatbardha
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Babani
authors.affiliation: Section of Natural and Technical Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Albania, Tirana, Albania.
authors.forename: Efigjeni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kongjika
keywords: Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging; Dehydration-rehydration; Photosynthetic activity; Resurrection plants