Photo-reduction of O2to water mediated by flavodiiron proteins (FDPs) represents a safety valve for the photosynthetic electron transport chain in fluctuating light. So far, the FDP-mediated O2photo-reduction has been evidenced only in cyanobacteria and the moss Physcomitrella; however, a recent phylogenetic analysis of transcriptomes of photosynthetic organisms has also revealed the presence of FDP genes in several nonflowering plant groups. What remains to be clarified is whether the FDP-dependent O2photo-reduction is actually operational in these organisms. We have established a simple method for the monitoring of FDP-mediated O2photo-reduction, based on the measurement of redox kinetics of P700 (the electron donor of photosystem I) upon dark-to-light transition. The O2photo-reduction is manifested as a fast re-oxidation of P700. The validity of the method was verified by experiments with transgenic organisms, namely FDP knock-out mutants of Synechocystis and Physcomitrella and transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing FDPs from Physcomitrella. We observed the fast P700 re-oxidation in representatives of all green plant groups excluding angiosperms. Our results provide strong evidence that the FDP-mediated O2photo-reduction is functional in all nonflowering green plant groups. This finding suggests a major change in the strategy of photosynthetic regulation during the evolution of angiosperms.

Department of Biochemistry Molecular Plant Biology University of Turku 20014 Turku Finland

Department of Biology University of Padova 35131 Padova Italy

Department of Biophysics Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research Palacký University 783 71 Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Botany Graduate School of Science Kyoto University 606 8502 Kyoto Japan CREST Japan Science and Technology Agency Chiyoda ku 102 0076 Tokyo Japan

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