Magdalena D. Cetner

Chlorophyll a fluorescence as a tool to monitor physiological status of plants under abiotic stress conditions

Plants living under natural conditions are exposed to many adverse factors that interfere with the photosynthetic process, leading to declines in growth, development, and yield. The recent development of Chlorophyll a fluorescence (ChlF) represents a potentially valuable new approach to study the photochemical efficiency of leaves. Specifically, the analysis of fluorescence signals provides detailed information on the status and function of Photosystem II (PSII) reaction centers, light-harvesting antenna complexes, and both the donor and acceptor sides of PSII. Here, we review the results of fast ChlF analyses of photosynthetic responses to environmental stresses, and discuss the potential scientific and practical applications of this innovative methodology. The recent availability of portable devices has significantly expanded the potential utilization of ChlF techniques, especially for the purposes of crop phenotyping and monitoring.

Chapter 15 – The Use of Chlorophyll Fluorescence Kinetics Analysis to Study the Performance of Photosynthetic Machinery in Plants

Plants under natural conditions experience unfavorable growth conditions. These can cause a reduction of their photosynthetic rate or even damage the photosynthetic apparatus, which can lead to a serious decrease of plant productivity and yield. Photosynthesis is sensitive to environmental limitations, which means that photosynthetic measurement is an important tool for plant stress studies. Nevertheless, classic methods, such as the measurement of photosynthetic rates through gas exchange (CO2, H2O, and O2), are time-consuming and give incomplete information about photosynthetic function. Thus, the introduction of methods based on chlorophyll a fluorescence has led to a significant breakthrough in photosynthesis research. In this chapter we discuss the wide range of chlorophyll a fluorescence applications to understand the response of the photosynthetic apparatus to various stress conditions. We concentrate on demonstrating the so-called “OJIP test” as a good tool to explore the response of photosystem II (PSII). In addition, we discuss the issue of PSII heterogeneity under unfavorable growth conditions.

A comparison between different chlorophyll content meters under nutrient deficiency conditions

ABSTRACT Chlorophyll content meters have been used successfully to estimate foliar chlorophyll content in various plant species in non-destructive way, especially to study stress physiology and abiotic stresses, such as nutrient deficiency. The main aim of this work was to compare the records of different chlorophyll content meters with the results obtained by the destructive method under the deficiency of main macronutrients in plants growth medium. Four devices (CL-01, SPAD-502, Dualex, and CCM-200) were used to estimate chlorophyll content in maize and tomato plants. In maize plants, all devices validated high accuracy for potassium and nitrogen deficiency and low accuracy for phosphorous and magnesium. In tomato, they showed a high degree of accuracy for calcium, potassium, and iron deficiencies, and low accuracy for phosphorus deficiency. All devices proved to be suitable to provide a reasonably estimation of chlorophyll content under optimal nutrient conditions. However, under nutrient deficiency conditions, tested devices showed different values for the same plant under the same nutrient deficiency. This suggest that, these devices should be validated by a sampling destructive method under such conditions.

Effective microorganisms impact on photosynthetic activity of Arabidopsis plant grown under salinity stress conditions

Abstract Effective microorganisms impact on photosynthetic activity of Arabidopsis plant grown under salinity stress conditions. Salinity is one of the main abiotic stressors which affects plant growth through various physiological processes such as photosynthesis. The aim of this work is to study the impact of salinity stress on Arabidopsis plants by evaluating plant growth rate and photosynthetic activity, while investigating the influence of effective microorganisms (EMs) with the objective to determine if EMs could alleviate the induced stress affiliated with salinity. Results showed that salinity negatively affects photosynthesis efficiency in Arabidopsis plants based on the data obtained from the measured chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Additionally, application of EMs enhanced plant tolerance to counteract the induced stress. Effective microorganisms concentration of 10 mL/L suggested to bring about the best results. This work advocates, that quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) is a reliable indicator for tolerance in Arabidopsis plants to salinity stress, the impact of which may be softened by the EMs.

Chlorophyll fluorescence as a tool for nutrient status identification in rapeseed plants

In natural conditions, plants growth and development depends on environmental conditions, including the availability of micro- and macroelements in the soil. Nutrient status should thus be examined not by establishing the effects of single nutrient deficiencies on the physiological state of the plant but by combinations of them. Differences in the nutrient content significantly affect the photochemical process of photosynthesis therefore playing a crucial role in plants growth and development. In this work, an attempt was made to find a connection between element content in (i) different soils, (ii) plant leaves, grown on these soils and (iii) changes in selected chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters, in order to find a method for early detection of plant stress resulting from the combination of nutrient status in natural conditions. To achieve this goal, a mathematical procedure was used which combines principal component analysis (a tool for the reduction of data complexity), hierarchical k-means (a classification method) and a machine-learning method—super-organising maps. Differences in the mineral content of soil and plant leaves resulted in functional changes in the photosynthetic machinery that can be measured by chlorophyll a fluorescent signals. Five groups of patterns in the chlorophyll fluorescent parameters were established: the ‘no deficiency’, Fe-specific deficiency, slight, moderate and strong deficiency. Unfavourable development in groups with nutrient deficiency of any kind was reflected by a strong increase in Fo and ΔV/Δt0 and decline in φPo, φEoδRo and φRo. The strong deficiency group showed the suboptimal development of the photosynthetic machinery, which affects both PSII and PSI. The nutrient-deficient groups also differed in antenna complex organisation. Thus, our work suggests that the chlorophyll fluorescent method combined with machine-learning methods can be highly informative and in some cases, it can replace much more expensive and time-consuming procedures such as chemometric analyses.

Response of growth, quality parameters and photosynthetic apparatus of endive plant to different culture media

Abstract Endive (Cichorium endivia L.) is a leaf vegetable with high vitamin and nutritional values. Therefore, an increase of its cultivation in Poland and other European countries has been observed in recent years. The aim of this research was to study the effect of different growth media on the quality and photosynthetic efficiency of different endive cultivars. The experiment was conducted in controlled greenhouse conditions. Endive was grown in three independent NFT cultivation systems: a standard culture medium (control, A1), a culture medium concentrated three-fold (A2) and a medium concentrated five-fold (A3). Four cultivars were used: ‘Kethel’, ‘Barundi’, ‘Galanti’ and ‘Perceval’. The plants were examined for the number and weight of fully-grown leaves and the weight of roots, dry matter content and chemical quality attributes of endive such as ascorbic acid (AA), total soluble solids (TSS), chlorophyll and proline. In addition, several physiological traits such as modulated chlorophyll a fluorescence were measured. Both three-fold and five-fold increases of ion concentration in the nutrient solution induced stress in the endive plants. Our results showed that the photosynthetic efficiency of the tested endive plants was affected by the cultivar factor and only the highest (five-fold) ion concentration in the nutrient solution. Growth under a medium of three-fold ion concentration did not affect the photosynthetic efficiency, despite observed changes in the growth and quality parameters of the endive plants. This study suggests that the type of fluorescence measurements used in this experiment (modulated) cannot be recommended as a sufficient bioindicator during endive production.

Erratum to: Frequently asked questions about chlorophyll fluorescence, the sequel

Hazem M. Kalaji1 · Gert Schansker2 · Marian Brestic3 · Filippo Bussotti4 · Angeles Calatayud5 · Lorenzo Ferroni6 · Vasilij Goltsev7 · Lucia Guidi8 · Anjana Jajoo9 · Pengmin Li10 · Pasquale Losciale11 · Vinod K. Mishra12 · Amarendra N. Misra13 · Sergio G. Nebauer14 · Simonetta Pancaldi6 · Consuelo Penella5 · Martina Pollastrini4 · Kancherla Suresh15 · Eduardo Tambussi16 · Marcos Yanniccari16 · Marek Zivcak3 · Magdalena D. Cetner1 · Izabela A. Samborska1 · Alexandrina Stirbet17 · Katarina Olsovska18 · Kristyna Kunderlikova18 · Henry Shelonzek19 · Szymon Rusinowski20 · Wojciech Bąba21