Water Deficit and Heat Affect the Tolerance to High Illumination in Hibiscus Plants

This work studies the effects of water deficit and heat, as well as the involvement of chlororespiration and the ferredoxin-mediated cyclic pathway, on the tolerance of photosynthesis to high light intensity in Hibiscus rosa-sinensis plants. Drought and heat resulted in the down–regulation of photosynthetic linear electron transport in the leaves, although only a slight decrease in variable fluorescence (F(v))/maximal fluorescence (F(m)) was observed, indicating that the chloroplast was protected by mechanisms that dissipate excess excitation energy to prevent damage to the photosynthetic apparatus. The incubation of leaves from unstressed plants under high light intensity resulted in an increase of the activity of electron donation by nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and ferredoxin to plastoquinone, but no increase was observed in plants exposed to water deficit, suggesting that cyclic electron transport was stimulated by high light only in control plants. In contrast, the activities of the chlororespiration enzymes (NADH dehydrogenase (NDH) complex and plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX)) increased after incubation under high light intensity in leaves of the water deficit plants, but not in control plants, suggesting that chlororespiration was stimulated in stressed plants. The results indicate that the relative importance of chlororespiration and the cyclic electron pathway in the tolerance of photosynthesis to high illumination differs under stress conditions. When plants were not subjected to stress, the contribution of chlororespiration to photosynthetic electron flow regulation was not relevant, and another pathway, such as the ferredoxin-mediated cyclic pathway, was more important. However, when plants were subjected to water deficit and heat, chlororespiration was probably essential.