Effects of Temperature Pretreatment in the Dark on Photosynthesis of the Intact Spinach Chloroplast

Isolated, intact spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. var. "Long Standing Bloomsdale") chloroplasts were heated in the dark and the effect of this treatment on photosynthetic activities was determined at 25 degrees C. Dark incubation of the chloroplasts for 10 minutes at 35 degrees C and pH 8.1 resulted in a 50% decline in CO(2) photoassimilation. This decline in photosynthetic performance was dependent upon time, temperature, and medium pH with the optimum effect at acidic pH values. Photosynthetic decline was not observed if MgATP, MgADP, or a mixture of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate, aldolase, and oxaloacetate or ribose 5-phosphate and oxaloacetate was added prior to but not after the temperature pretreatment. A chloroplast preparation reconstituted with thylakoids and stroma from pretreated (35 degrees C, 10 minutes, pH 8.1) intact chloroplasts and supplemented with ferredoxin, ADP, and NADP was photosynthetically competent, indicating that ATP-coupled electron flow and the enzymes comprising the Benson-Calvin cycle remained stable during the dark treatment. In contrast, exposure of isolated thylakoids to 35 degrees C for 10 minutes uncoupled photophosphorylation from NADP and ferricyanide reduction. We propose that the decline of intact chloroplast photosynthesis is the result of a decrease in the content of or a change in the ratios of the adenine nucleotides. Maintenance of an adequate supply of adenine nucleotide is the effect of the externally added MgATP or of chloroplastic respiration of a sugar phosphate.