Aggregation-Related Nonphotochemical Quenching in the Photosynthetic Membrane

The photosynthetic apparatus of plants is a robust self-adjustable molecular system, able to function efficiently under varying environmental conditions. Under strong sunlight, it switches into photoprotective mode to avoid overexcitation by safely dissipating the excess absorbed light energy via nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ). Unfortunately, heterogeneous organization and simultaneous occurrence of multiple processes within the thylakoid membrane impede the study of natural NPQ under in vivo conditions; thus, usually artificially prepared antennae have been studied instead. However, it has never been shown directly that the origin of fluorescence quenching observed in these artificial systems underlies natural NPQ. Here we report the time-resolved fluorescence measurements of the dark-adapted and preilluminated-to induce NPQ-intact chloroplasts, performed over a broad temperature range. We show that their spectral response matches that observed in the LHCII aggregates, thus demonstrating explicitly for the first time that the latter in vitro system preserves essential properties of natural photoprotection.