Faster screening of Photoprotection in Crops
Published:13 Sep.2022 Source:Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Plants spend all day creating food from sunlight using photosynthesis -- a 100+ step process that researchers have been working to improve its efficiency in crops to ultimately deliver more yield. When crop leaves are in full sunlight, such as in the wide-open fields, their green chlorophyll molecules receive more light energy than they can use. If this energy isn't dissipated from the molecules, they will react with oxygen to produce bleaching agents that can destroy the leaf, costing plants up to 10%-30% of their ability to photosynthesize.
The team of researchers laid out their protocol from seed planting in the summer of 2021 to collecting leaf samples from the field and processing and measuring NPQ chlorophyll fluorescence data. The team found that to obtain reliable measurements of NPQ, several components need to be taken into consideration, such as the choice and handling of leaf disks. For example, rough handling with tweezers could introduce stress to the leaf tissue, and rates of NPQ activation and relaxation can vary with leaf age and plant developmental stage, all of which are elements to watch out for to reduce experimental noise.