Drought is one of the main factors in the reduction and significant annual variability of agricultural production worldwide. Wheat, one of the world’s most important food crops, is sensitive to this stressor. Currently, improvement of photosynthetic efficiency is considered as a promising strategy for increasing the potential of wheat grain productivity. The aim of our work was to investigate the effect of a one-week drought during the flowering period on the content and ratio of xanthophylls of the violaxanthin cycle, which are involved in the protection of the photosynthetic apparatus from excess absorbed solar energy. It was found that the total pool of violaxanthin cycle pigments in flag leaves of plants in the variant with sufficient water supply (70 % of field capacity) and under the conditions of a one-week drought (30 % of field capacity) did not differ significantly. However, the content of individual xanthophylls and the ratio between epoxidized and de-epoxidized pigments of the cycle on the 7th day of drought changed significantly. In bright sunlight under drought, the violaxanthin content was 10 % lower than under conditions of sufficient moisture. The content of deepoxidized cycle pigments — zeaxanthin and antheraxanthin, on the contrary, increased by 22 and 18 %, respectively. As a result, the ratio between epoxidized and de-epoxidized pigments in cycle increased under drought conditions. An increase in the degree of the cycle deepoxidation under conditions of moisture deficiency in the soil indicates greater losses of absorbed solar energy in non-photochemical reactions and less it use in photochemical processes, that leads to a decrease in the efficiency of photosynthesis under stress conditions. The decrease in the grain productivity of the main shoot and the whole winter wheat plant under drought treatment compared to the sufficient water supply indicates that efficiency of photosynthesis is one of the factors that determine the wheat productivity.
Keywords: Triticum aestivum L., drought, chlorophyll, xanthophyll cycle, deepoxidation
Full text and supplemented materials
Free full text: PDFReferences
1. Simkin, A.J., Lypez-Calcagno, P.E. & Raines, C.A. (2019). Feeding the world: improving photosynthetic efficiency for sustainable crop production. J. Exp. Bot., 70, No. 4, pp. 1119-1140. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ery445
2. Walker, B.J., Kramer, D.M., Fisher, N. & Fu, X. (2020). Flexibility in the energy balancing network of photosynthesis enables safe operation under changing environmental conditions. Plants, 9, No. 3, 301. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9030301
3. Brestic, M., Zivcak, M., Hauptvogel, P., Misheva, S., Kocheva, K., Yang, X., Li, X. & Allakhverdiev, S.I. (2018). Wheat plant selection for high yields entailed improvement of leaf anatomical and biochemical traits including tolerance to non-optimal temperature conditions. Photosynth. Res., 136, No. 2, pp. 245-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-018-0486-z
4. Roy, C., Chattopadhyay, T., Ranjan, R.D., Ul Hasan, W., Kumar, A. & De N. (2021). Association of leaf chlorophyll content with the stay-green trait and grain yield in wheat grown under heat stress conditions. Czech J. Genet. Plant Breed., 57, No. 4, pp. 140-148. https://doi.org/10.17221/45/2021-CJGPB
5. Sangwan, S., Ram, K., Rani, P. & Munjal, R. (2018). Effect of terminal high temperature on chlorophyll content and normalized difference vegetation index in recombinant inbred lines of bread wheat. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. Appl. Sci., 7, pp. 1174-1183. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.706.139
6. Li, X., Yang, R., Li, L., Liu, K., Harrison, M.T., Fahad, S., Wei, M., Yin, L., Zhou, M. & Wang, X. (2023). Physiological and molecular responses of wheat to low light intensity. Agronomy, 13, 272. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13010272
7. Ruban, A.V., Jonson, M.P. & Duffy, C.D. (2012). The photoprotective molecular switch in the photosystem II antenna. Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1817, No. 1, pp. 167-181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbabio.2011.04.007
8. Kiriziy, D.A., Stasik, O.O., Pryadkina, G., & Shadchina, T.M. (2014). Photosynthesis. Vol. 2. Assimilation of CO2 and the mechanisms of its regulation. Kyiv: Logos [in Russian].
9. Horton, P. (2000). Prospects for crop improvement through the genetic manipulation of photosynthesis: morphological and biochemical aspects of light capture. J. Exp. Bot., 51, pp. 475-485. https://doi.org/10.1093/jexbot/51.suppl_1.475
10. Demmig-Adams, B., Stewart, J.J., Lypez-Pozo, M., Polutchko, S.K. & Adams, W.W. (2020). Zeaxanthin, a molecule for photoprotection in many different environments. Molecules, 25, 5825. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25245825
11. Murchie, E.H. & Niyogi, K.K. (2011). Manipulation of photoprotection to improve plant photosynthesis. Plant Physiol., 155, No. 1, pp. 86-92. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.110.168831
12. Takemura, M., Sahara, T. & Misawa, N. (2021). Violaxanthin: natural function and occurrence, biosynthesis, and heterologous production. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 105, pp. 6133-6142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11452-2
13. Sinclair, T.R., Rufty, T.W. & Lewis, R.S. (2019). Increasing photosynthesis: unlikely solution for world food problem. Trends Plant Sci., 24, No. 11, pp. 1032-1039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2019.07.008
14. Wang, S.H., Jing, Q., Dai, T.B., Jiang, D. & Cao, W.X. (2008). Evolution characteristics of flag leaf photosynthesis and grain yield of wheat cultivars bred in different years. 19, No. 6, pp. 1255-1260. Chinese. PMID: 18808017.
15. Murchie, E.H., Reynolds, M., Slafer, G.A., Foulkes, M.J., Acevedo-Siaca, L., McAusland, L., Sharwood, R., Griffiths, S., Flavell, R.B., Gwyn, J., Sawkins, M. & Carmo-Silva, E. (2023). A 'wiring diagram' for source strength traits impacting wheat yield potential. J. Exp. Bot., 74, No. 1, pp. 72-90. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erac415
16. Kamal, N.M., Alnor Gorafi, Y.S., Abdelrahman, M., Abdellatef, E. & Tsujimoto, H. (2019). Stay-green trait: A prospective approach for yield potential, and drought and heat stress adaptation in globally important cereals. Int. J. Molec. Sci., 20, No. 20, 5837. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20235837
17. Leng, G. & Hall, J. (2019). Crop yield sensitivity of global major agricultural countries to droughts and the projected changes in the future. Sci. Env., 654, pp. 811-821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.434
18. Cardona, T., Shao, S. & Nixon, P.J. (2018). Enhancing photosynthesis in plants: the light reactions. Essays Biochem., 62, No. 1, pp. 85-94. https://doi.org/10.1042/EBC20170015
19. Wu, A., Hammer, G.L., Doherty, A., von Caemmerer, S. & Farquhar, G.D. (2019). Quantifying impacts of enhancing photosynthesis on crop yield. Nat. Plants, 5, No. 4, pp. 380-388. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0398-8
20. Gu, J., Yin, X., Stomph, T.J. & Struik, P.C. (2014). Can exploiting natural genetic variation in leaf photosynthesis contribute to increasing rice productivity? A simulation analysis. Plant Cell Environ., 37, No. 1, pp. 22-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12173
21. Arnon, D.I. (1949). Copper enzymes in isolated chloroplasts. Polyphenoloxidase in Beta vulgaris. Plant Physiol., 24, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.24.1.1
22. Choudhary, N.K., Choe, H.T. & Huffaker, R.C. (1993). Ascorbate induced zeaxanthin formation in wheat leaves and photoprotection of pigment and photochemical activities during aging of chloroplasts in light. J. Plant Physiol., 141, No. 5, pp. 551-556. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0176-1617(11)80455-4
23. Kromdijk, J., Giowacka, K., Leonelli, L., Gabilly, S.T., Iwai, M., Niyiogi, K.K. & Long, S.P. (2016). Improving photosynthesis and crop productivity by accelerating recovery from photoprotection. Science, 354, No. 6314, pp. 857-861. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai8878
24. Leonelli, L., Erickson, E., Lyska, D. & Niyogi, K.K. (2016). Transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana for rapid functional analysis of genes involved in non-photochemical quenching and carotenoid biosynthesis. Plant J., 88, No. 3, pp. 375-386. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13268
25. Taylor, S.H. & Long, S.P. (2017). Slow induction of photosynthesis on shade to sun transitions in wheat may cost at least 21 % of productivity. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B: Biol. Sci., 372, No. 1730, 20160543. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0543