Nondestructive evaluation of photosynthesis by delayed luminescence in Arabidopsis in Petri dishes

Delayed luminescence (DL) can reflect charge recombination through the backflow of electrons. However, DL detection has not yet been adapted for whole plants in Petri dishes.

To compensate for differences in DL decay between sibling Arabidopsis plants grown under the same conditions, we developed a time-sequential double measurement method. Using this method, we examined the influence of photosynthetic electron flow inhibitors, and differences in the DL decay curves were categorized by considering the initial and late phases of the decay curves, as well as their intermediate slopes. The appearance of concavity and convexity in DL curves in Arabidopsis was different from unicellular algae, suggesting complexity in the photosynthetic machinery of higher plants.