Study on the Relationship between Delayed Fluorescence and Photosynthetic Capability at Elevated Temperature in Higher Plants

With the continuous elevation of the global temperature, high-temperature stress has been a major environmental factor that affects plant growth and productivity. Effects of short-term heat temperature stress on light-induced delayed fluorescence (DF) decay kinetic curve, intensity and emission spectrum have been investigated in C3 soybean (Jing Huang No.3) and C4 maize (Yun Xi No.5081) species. The temperature responses of DF decay kinetic curve from two different species show that decay rate characteristics are affected by high temperature. The spectroscopy measurements indicate that heat stress influence the shape of DF emission spectra of two species, especially the peak intensities at 685nm and 730nm. Moreover, our results clearly demonstrate that DF intensity of each plant positively correlated with F730/F685 of DF emission spectra at elevated temperatures. In addition, the net photosynthetic rate ( P n) of samples has the same temperature response with DF intensity and F730/F685. Based on these results, we can conclude that there is an excellent correlation between F730/F685 of DF emission spectra, DF intensity and P n in both C3 and C4 plants. Therefore, we proposed that the F730/F685 of DF emission spectrum can be used to measure the photosynthetic capability of higher plants to heat stress.