Photomorphogenesis is a process by which photosynthetic organisms perceive external light parameters, including light quality (color), and adjust cellular metabolism, growth rates and other parameters, in order to survive in a changing light environment. In this study we comprehensively explored the light color acclimation of Cyanobium gracile, a common cyanobacterium in turbid freshwater shallow lakes, using nine different monochromatic growth lights covering the whole visible spectrum from 435 to 687 nm. According to incident light wavelength, C. gracile cells performed great plasticity in terms of pigment composition, antenna size, and photosystem stoichiometry, to optimize their photosynthetic performance and to redox poise their intersystem electron transport chain. In spite of such compensatory strategies, C. gracile, like other cyanobacteria, uses blue and near far-red light less efficiently than orange or red light, which involves moderate growth rates, reduced cell volumes and lower electron transport rates. Unfavorable light conditions, where neither chlorophyll nor phycobilisomes absorb light sufficiently, are compensated by an enhanced antenna size. Increasing the wavelength of the growth light is accompanied by increasing photosystem II to photosystem I ratios, which involve better light utilization in the red spectral region. This is surprisingly accompanied by a partial excitonic antenna decoupling, which was the highest in the cells grown under 687 nm light. So far, a similar phenomenon is known to be induced only by strong light; here we demonstrate that under certain physiological conditions such decoupling is also possible to be induced by weak light. This suggests that suboptimal photosynthetic performance of the near far-red light grown C. gracile cells is due to a solid redox- and/or signal-imbalance, which leads to the activation of this short-term light acclimation process. Using a variety of photo-biophysical methods, we also demonstrate that under blue wavelengths, excessive light is quenched through orange carotenoid protein mediated non-photochemical quenching, whereas under orange/red wavelengths state transitions are involved in photoprotection.

Balaton Limnological Institute Centre for Ecological Research Tihany Hungary

Cellular Imaging Laboratory Biological Research Center Eötvös Loránd Research Network Szeged Hungary

Centre Algatech Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Třeboň Czechia

Global Change Research Institute Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Brno Czechia

Institute of Biophysics Biological Research Centre Eötvös Loránd Research Network Szeged Hungary

Institute of Plant Biology Biological Research Centre Eötvös Loránd Research Network Szeged Hungary

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A Comprehensive Study of Light Quality Acclimation in Synechocystis Sp. PCC 6803

Shedding light on blue-green photosynthesis: A wavelength-dependent mathematical model of photosynthesis in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803