Light-dependent development of thermoluminescence, delayed emission and fluorescence variation in dark-grown spruce leaves.

Thermoluminescence profiles of spruce leaves grown under various light or dark conditions were measured after excitation at a low temperature (-70 to -20 degrees C) by 1-min illumination with red light, and the following results were obtained. Mature spruce leaves showed five thermoluminescence bands at -30, -5, +20, +40 (or +35) and +70 degrees C (denoted as Zv, A, B1, B2 and C bands, respectively), but dark-grown spruce leaves with a similar chlorophyll content showed only two bands, at -30 and +70 degrees C (the Zv and C bands) and were devoid of the three other bands (the A, B1, and B2 bands). On exposure of the dark-grown leaves to continuous red light, the A, B1and B2 bands were rapidly developed, and the development was accompanied by enhancement of delayed emission, fluorescence variation and the Hill activity (photoreduction of 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol with water as electron donor). It was demonstrated that the dark-grown spruce leaves are devoid of the water-splitting system in Photosystem II, and that the latent water-splitting activity is rapidly photoactivated by exposure of the leaves to continuous red light. These results on the gymnosperm spruce leaves, in which greening proceeds in complete darkness, being independent of the development of the water-splitting system in light, were discussed in relation to previous observations on angiosperm leaves, in which both greening and the activity generation proceed in the light.