1992/02/01 by James Barber, Bertil Andersson, Andre Widdyantoro · 5 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Neuroscience · #Economic Growth and Fiscal Policies #Financial Analysis and Corporate Governance #Light effects on plants #Photoreceptor and optogenetics research #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
paper · doi:10.1016/0968-0004(92)90503-2
openalex publication_date 2013/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
Even though light is the ultimate substrate for photosynthetic energy conversion, it can also harm plants. This toxicity is targeted to the water-splitting photosystem II and leads to damage and degradation of the reaction centre D1-polypeptide. The degradation of this very important protein appears to be a direct consequence of photosystem II chemistry involving highly oxidizing radicals and toxic oxygen species. The frequency of this damage is relatively low under normal conditions but becomes a significant problem for the plant with increasing light intensity, especially when combined with other environmental stress factors. However, the plant survives this photoinhibition through an efficient repair system which involves an autoproteolytic activity of the photosystem II complex, D1-polypeptide synthesis and reassembly of active complexes.