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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Evaluation of Photosynthetic Efficiency in Photorespiratory Mutants by Chlorophyll Fluorescence Analysis
Published on: December 9, 2022
Air pollutant stress changes the steady-state transcript levels of three photosynthesis genes
1Plant Molecular Biology Group, Department of Biology, Biozentrum Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Marie Curie Str. 9, N 200, 60439 Frankfurt/M, Germany.
Abstract:
Six-week-old tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum L., cv. SR-1) were fumigated with different, but defined and realistic combinations of NO(2), automobile exhaust and ozone for two days. To determine the effect of an additional environmental stress during exposure, plants were either wounded mechanically or treated with salicylic acid to simulate pathogen attack. The steady-state mRNA levels of genes encoding the small subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rbcS), chlorophyll a/b-binding protein (cab) and a 10 kDa protein of the water-evolving complex of photosystem II (ST-LS1) were probed in Northern analysis. Our results clearly show a decline of the mRNA levels for all three photosynthesis genes under automobile exhaust and/or ozone fumigation. Wounding and also elicitor treatment enhance this effect. In contrast, exposure to NO(2) either increased the transcription level of all three genes, or counteracted the negative effect of automobile exhaust and ozone on their expression. At this time no major changes in the concentrations of the corresponding proteins could be detected by Western blot analyses. These results are discussed in the present paper.
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Transcription
Transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from a DNA sequence by RNA polymerase. It is the first step in producing a protein from a gene sequence. Additionally, many other proteins and regulatory sequences are involved in the proper synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA). Regulation of transcription is responsible for the differentiation of all the different types of cells and often for the proper cellular response to environmental signals.
Transcription Can Produce Different Kinds...
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