title: Chloroplast avoidance movement as a sensitive indicator of relative water content during leaf desiccation in the dark.
abstract: In the context of global climate change, drought is one of the major stress factors with negative effect on photosynthesis and plant productivity. Currently, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters are widely used as indicators of plant stress, mainly owing to the rapid, non-destructive and simple measurements this technique allows. However, these parameters have been shown to have limited sensitivity for the monitoring of water deficit as leaf desiccation has relatively small effect on photosystem II photochemistry. In this study, we found that blue light-induced increase in leaf transmittance reflecting chloroplast avoidance movement was much more sensitive to a decrease in relative water content (RWC) than chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in dark-desiccating leaves of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Whereas the inhibition of chloroplast avoidance movement was detectable in leaves even with a small RWC decrease, the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (F V/F M, V J, Ф PSII, NPQ) changed markedly only when RWC dropped below 70 %. For this reason, we propose light-induced chloroplast avoidance movement as a sensitive indicator of the decrease in leaf RWC. As our measurement of chloroplast movement using collimated transmittance is simple and non-destructive, it may be more suitable in some cases for the detection of plant stresses including water deficit than the conventionally used chlorophyll fluorescence methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, 783 71, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nauš
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, 783 71, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Slavomír
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Šmecko
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, 783 71, Olomouc, Czech Republic. martina.spundova@upol.cz.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Špundová
mesh_terms: D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D003624:Darkness; D003890:Desiccation; D055864:Droughts; D005453:Fluorescence; D001467:Hordeum / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D010788:Photosynthesis; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D002734:Chlorophyll
keywords: Chlorophyll fluorescence; Chloroplast avoidance movement; Desiccation; Relative water content; Transmittance