Publication details
Curling during desiccation protects the foliose lichen Lobaria pulmonaria against photoinhibition.
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Oecologia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Botany |
| Keywords | lichen; photosynthesis; chlorophyll fluorescence imaging; thallus movements; dehydration |
| Description | This study aims to assess the photoprotective potential of desiccation-induced curling in the light susceptible old forest lichen Lobaria pulmonaria by using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. Naturally curled thalli showed less photoinhibition-induced limitations in primary processes of photosynthesis than artificially flattened specimens during exposures to 450 micromol m-2 s-1 in the lab after both 12 (low light treatment) and 62 h duration (high light treatment). Curled thalli exhibited less pronounced photoinhibition not only in those thallus parts shaded by curled lobes but even on the level of the whole thallus. Thallus parts shaded by curled lobes during light exposure showed unchanged values of measured chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (FV/FM, F0/FM,Phi PS II), whereas non-shaded parts of curled thalli, as well as the entire area of flattened thalli, showed photoinhibitory damage after light treatments. The chlorophyll fluorescence imaging also showed that the typical small-scale reticulated ridges on the upper side of L. pulmonaria caused a spatial, small-scale reduction in damage due to thallus morphology providing a tiny shading pattern. Severe dry-state photoinhibition readily occurred in light treated L. pulmonaria, especially in flattened samples, although the mechanisms for such damage in desiccated thalli, and thus inactive state of photobiont, are not yet well known. |
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