The Antarctic lichen, Xanthoria elegans, in its hydrated state has several physiological mechanisms to cope with high light effects on the photosynthetic processes of its photobionts. We aim to investigate the changes in primary photochemical processes of photosystem II in response to a short-term photoinhibitory treatment. Several chlorophyll a fluorescence techniques: (1) slow Kautsky kinetics supplemented with quenching mechanism analysis; (2) light response curves of photosynthetic electron transport (ETR); and (3) response curves of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) were used in order to evaluate the phenomenon of photoinhibition of photosynthesis and its consequent recovery. Our findings suggest that X. elegans copes well with short-term high light (HL) stress due to effective photoprotective mechanisms that are activated during the photoinhibitory treatment. The investigations of quenching mechanisms revealed that photoinhibitory quenching (qIt) was a major non-photochemical quenching in HL-treated X. elegans; qIt relaxed rapidly and returned to pre-photoinhibition levels after a 120 min recovery. We conclude that the Antarctic lichen species X. elegans exhibits a high degree of photoinhibition resistance and effective non-photochemical quenching mechanisms. This photoprotective mechanism may help it survive even repeated periods of high light during the early austral summer season, when lichens are moist and physiologically active.

Department of Reproductive System Cryobiology Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Pereyaslavska Str 23 61016 Kharkiv Ukraine

Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi Biyoloji Bölümü 38039 Kayseri Turkey

Laboratory of Ecological Plant Physiology Czech Academy of Sciences Global Change Research Institute Bělidla 4a 603 00 Brno Czech Republic

Laboratory of Photosynthetic Processes Department of Experimental Biology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kamenice 5 625 00 Brno Czech Republic

Laboratory of Plant Ecophysiology and Climate Change Environmental Sciences Department Faculty of Natural Resources Catholic University of Temuco Avenida Rudecindo Ortega 02950 Campus San Juan Pablo 2 Temuco 481 1123 Chile

State Institution National Antarctic Scientific Center Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine T Shevchenko blvrd 16 01601 Kyiv Ukraine

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