Chloroplast movement behavior varies widely among species and does not correlate with high light stress tolerance.

It is well known that chloroplasts move in response to changes in blue light intensity in order to optimize light interception, however, little is known about interspecific variation and the relative importance of this mechanism for the high light stress tolerance of plants. We characterized chloroplast movement behavior as changes in light transmission through a leaf in a variety of species ranging from ferns to monocots and eudicots and found a wide spectrum of responses. Most species exhibited a distinct accumulation response compared to the dark positioning, and all species showed a distinct avoidance response. The speed with which transmission values changed during the avoidance response was consistently faster than that during the accumulation response and speeds varied greatly between species. Plants thriving in higher growth light intensities showed greater degrees of accumulation responses and faster changes in transmission than those that prefer lower light intensities. In some species, the chloroplasts on both the adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces changed their positioning in response to light, while in other species only the chloroplasts on one leaf side responded. No correlation was found between high light stress tolerance and the speed or degree of transmission changes, indicating that plants can compensate for slow and limited transmission changes using other photoprotective mechanisms.