Abstract
A photoautotrophic cell culture presents the advantages of simplified system for photosynthetic research. We have established a photoautotrophic cell suspension culture of Arabidopsis thaliana and studied the cellular acclimation mechanisms to high light conditions. Arabidopsis cells grown under high light conditions (HL) showed a higher non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence, a higher carotenoids/chlorophylls ratio, and a higher content of xanthophyll-cycle pigments compared to low light grown cells (LL). We also analyzed the pigment-protein complexes composition of thylakoids from HL cells and LL cells. After the photoinhibitory treatment (1000 μmol photons m -2 s -1 for 30 min), both HL and LL cells had more zeaxanthin in LHCII compared to non-treated cells. HL cells had more xanthophylls in LHCII and a higher Lhcb3/Lhcb1 ratio than LL cells. Our results indicate that photoautotropnic Arabidopsis cultured cells could be a good model system to study high light acclimation mechanisms at the cellular level.
