Prolonged exposure of tobacco to a low oxygen atmosphere to suppress photorespiration decreases net photosynthesis and results in changes in plant morphology and chloroplast structure

Air-grown tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) plants were transferred for one week into a low oxygen atmosphere (2 kPa O2, LO) to study both immediate and long-term effects of the suppression of photorespiration on net photosynthetic rate (PN), plant morphology, and chloroplast ultrastructure. The PN and the leaf conductance for CO2 increased upon exposure of attached tobacco leaves to LO. These results may suggest that under LO, external CO2 is used to consume the radiant energy normally utilized in photorespiration by net CO2 assimilation at the expense of an increased rate of transpiration. The increase in the coefficient of nonphotochemical fluorescence quenching indicates that under LO, (surplus) radiant energy is also dissipated as heat. Prolonged LO-treatment of tobacco resulted in a decrease in the PN (measured in air) and in a reduction in the number of starch grains in the chloroplasts. Concomitantly, large lipid globuli appeared in the chloroplasts and the distance between the thylakoids forming the grana decreased. These changes in the ultrastructure of chloroplasts may have contributed to the decline in the PN. The LO-treated plants were considerably smaller than the control plants maintained in air. This appears to have resulted from a reduction in the rate of leaf area expansion at the expense of an increase in the specific mass of the leaves. This long-term response to LO-treatment may allow the plants to conserve water.