Differential susceptibility of photosynthesis to light-chilling stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.) depends on the capacity for photochemical dissipation of light

The primary target for light-chilling stress in chilling-sensitive cucumber leaves is the chloroplast Cu,Zn-Superoxide dismutase, followed by subsequent inactivation of the photosystem (PS) I by reactive oxygen species (ROS). To test this hypothesis, two rice cultivars that were different in their ecological origins (a chilling-resistant Stejaree 45 and a chilling-sensitive Milyang 23) were evaluated with respect to photosynthetic properties, the ROS scavenging system, and expression of genes that are involved in sucrose synthesis and allocation upon the light-chilling stress. As expected, when the leaves were exposed to various low temperatures with illumination (150 μmol m ^-2s^-1) for 6 h, the leaf photosynthesis of Milyang 23 decreased faster than that of Stejaree 45. The light-chilling induced differential photoinhibition of photosynthesis between the two cultivars was caused by the photoinactivation of PSII but not of PSI, since the potential quantum yield of PSII followed a similar trend to the changes in photosynthetic rates. The activities of the two chloroplastic antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase) that are known to be sensitive to oxidative stress were barely affected by the light-chilling treatments. Among various genes in sucrose metabolism (such as cytosolic FBPase, SPS, SUT, SuSy, and AGPase), the transcript levels of SuSy in Milyang 23 were significantly decreased by light-chilling stress compared to that of Stejaree 45. Based on these results, we propose that PSII, not PSI, is the sensitive site for light-chilling stress in chilling-sensitive rice. The extent of PSII photoinhibition depends on its capacity for the photochemical utilization of light.