Photosystem II and pigment dynamics among ecotypes of the green alga Ostreococcus

We investigated the photophysiological response of three ecotypes of the picophytoplankter Ostreococcus and a larger prasinophyte Pyramimonas obovata to a sudden increase in light irradiance. The deepwater Ostreococcus sp. RCC809 showed very high susceptibility to primary photoinactivation, likely a consequence of high oxidative stress, which may relate to the recently noted plastid terminal oxidase activity in this strain. The three Ostreococcus ecotypes were all able of deploying modulation of photosystem II repair cycle in order to cope with the light increase, but the effective clearance of photoinactivated D1 protein appeared to be slower in the deep water Ostreococcus sp. RCC809, suggesting that this step is rate-limiting in the photosystem II repair cycle in this strain. The deepwater Ostreococcus moreover accumulated lutein and showed substantial use of the xanthophyll cycle under light stress, demonstrating its high sensitivity to light fluctuations. The sustained component of the non-photochemical quenching of fluorescence correlated well with the xanthophyll de-epoxidation activity. Comparisons with the larger prasinophyte Pyramimonas obovata suggest that the photophysiology of Ostreococcus ecotypes requires high photosystem II repair rates to counter a high susceptibility to photoinactivation, consistent with low pigment package effects in their minute-sized cells.