A few enlarged chloroplasts are less efficient in photosynthesis than a large population of small chloroplasts in Arabidopsis thaliana

The photosynthetic, biochemical, and anatomical traits of accumulation and replication of chloroplasts (arc) mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana were investigated to study the effects of chloroplast size and number on photosynthesis. Chloroplasts were found to be significantly larger, and the chloroplast surface area exposed to intercellular air spaces (S (c)) significantly lower in the mutants than in their wild-types. The decreased S (c) and increase cytoplasm thickness in the mutants resulted in a lower mesophyll conductance (g (m)) and a consequently lower chloroplast CO(2) concentration (C (c)). There were no significant differences between the mutants and their wild-types in maximal carboxylation rate (V (cmax)), maximal electron transport (J (cmax)), and leaf soluble proteins. Leaf nitrogen (N) and Rubisco content were similar in both Wassilewskija (Ws) wild-type (Ws-WT) and the Ws mutant (arc 8), whereas they were slightly higher in Columbia (Col) wild-type (Col-WT) than the Col mutant (arc 12). The photosynthetic rate (A) and photosynthetic N use efficiency (PNUE) were significantly lower in the mutants than their wild-types. The mutants showed similar A/C (c) responses as their wild-type counterparts, but A at given C (c) was higher in Col and its mutant than in Ws and its mutant. From these results, we conclude that decreases in g (m) and C (c) are crucial to the reduction in A in arc mutants.