Photosynthetic and respirátory electron transfers in cyanobacteria not only serve the bioenergetic needs of these prokaryotes during day and night time. The common use of the plastoquinone pool and the cytochrome (cyt) complex also establishes possibilities for sharing photosystem (PS) 2 plus dehydrogenases at the donor side and cyt c oxidase plus PSI at the acceptor side. Given metabolic conditions and radiant energy supply, the available choices may give rise to unusual combinations of connected electron transfer activities, for example PS2 and cyt c oxidase. In vivo measurements of energy storage in PSI cyclic photophosphorylation via photoacoustic spectroscopy, and of the P700 redox statě via absorbance changes at 820 nm detected with the pulse amplitudě modulation technique (PAM), as well as of PS2 fluorescence yield, all in the absence or presence of the cyt c oxidase inhibitor KCN were combined to demonstrate that the two pathways at the acceptor side communicate in vivo. This type of regulation serves proper poising of electron flow through and around PSI. The impaired cyt c oxidase activity (in this study achieved by addition of KCN) prevents a truly oxidized statě of P700 to be reached, which hampers electron passage from PS2. The relative overreduction of PS 1 in the KCN intoxicated samples reduces the electron flow directed to biosynthesis. The results illustrate the versatility of the P700 redox statě measurements at 820 nm as a means to study in vivo electron fluxes in cyanobacteria.
Reduction kinetics of P700+ after far-red radiation (FR)-induced oxidation in intact tobacco leaves was examined by analysing the post-irradiation relaxation of 810-830 nm absorbance difference. The reduction curve could be de-convoluted distinctively into two or three exponential decaying components, depending on the FR irradiance, the treating and measuring temperatures, and the extent of dark adaptation. The multi-phasic kinetics of P700+ re-reduction upon the turning off of FR irradiation is related to the heterogeneity of electron transport around photosystem 1 in thylakoid membranes. and Ming-Xian Jin, Zheng-Ju Yao, Hualing Mi.