High Light-Induced Reduction and Low Light-Enhanced Recovery of Photon Yield in Triazine-Resistant Brassica napus L.

Triazine-resistant and -susceptible Brassica napus L. plants grown under low photon flux density (PFD) have previously been shown to exhibit a similar photon yield. In contrast, high PFD-grown resistant plants have a lower photon yield than high PFD-grown susceptible plants (JJ Hart, A Stemler [1990] Plant Physiol 94: 1295-1300). In this work we tested the hypothesis that high PFD can induce a differential decrease in photon yield in low PFD-grown plants. We measured photon yield, variable fluorescence/maximum fluorescence, and O(2) flash yield in low PFD-grown resistant and susceptible leaf discs before and after exposure to high PFD exposure. The results demonstrated that high PFD exposure results in a greater decrease in photosystem II (PSII) activity in resistant plants. Characteristics of recovery and other evidence suggest that the differential decrease in PSII efficiency in resistant leaf discs is caused by photoinhibitory damage. We propose that the differential reduction in photon yield and photosynthesis often observed in resistant plants is the result of increased sensitivity to photoinhibition.