Abstract
It has been recognized that plants accumulate the specific carotenoids in chloroplast to cope with high light stress. We have studied the high light adaptation of photoautotrophic culture of Petunia hybrida and found that the composition of carotenoids associating light harvesting complex II (LHCII) changed during adaptation. Further analyses were made on the pigments in major LHCII and minor LHCII. We also examined the pigment composition in other LHCs in intact leaves and cultured cells, and discussed the differences between them.
The results showed that LHCII in cultured cells had more violaxanthin and less lutein compared with LHCII in leaves, indicating that violaxanthin binds to the site of lutein in LHCII. In case of LHCI, both leaves and cultured cells had almost the same lutein contents, but LHCI in high light grown cultured cells contained extra zeaxanthin, suggesting extra zeaxanthin binds to LHCI during high light adaptation in cultured cells.
