Mamona e pinhão-manso apresentam mecanismos contrastantes na eficiência fotossintética em condições de estresses abióticos

Abstract

Plants of Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis have been exploited for agronomic production of biofuels, especially in hot and dry regions of semiarid at northeastern Brazil. These species are native to tropical and evolved in response to adverse abiotic conditions such as high temperature, drought, salinity and light. In this work, we start with the main hypothesis that saplings of Jatropha curcas and Ricinus communis have analogous mechanisms of acclimation of photosynthesis and photoprotection in response to abiotic stress conditions. For this, the main objectives of this work were to analyze, describe and discuss responses of photosynthesis and important photoprotection mechanisms such as dissipation of excess energy as heat, photorespiration, alternative electron sinks and antioxidant metabolism in young plants of physic nut and castor bean subjected to abiotic stress conditions. This work was divided into four chapters. The chapter I is a review of the literature and state of art of the main topics covered throughout the study. Chapter II, in the form of paper, aimed to meet and discuss the main responses of gas exchange and photochemistry of these two species in response to changes in environmental conditions such as increased lighting, internal CO2 concentration, vapor pressure deficit, leaf temperature and over a typical day in terms of a semiarid region. It has been clearly demonstrated in this experiment that R. communis plants, when well hydrated, have a higher photosynthetic efficiency given mainly by its high transpiration rate and stomatal conductance compared to young plants of J. curcas. However, in dry condition, by watering suspension or high DPV, J. curcas young plants are more efficient in CO2assimilation compared with R. communis. The data showed that the two species have different responses of photosynthesis under optimal or stressful conditions during the early growth stages. Chapter III aimed to demonstrate the differences in the main responses of these two species under drought conditions and its relation to stress tolerance between the two studied species. It has been shown that both species showed stomatal and metabolic limitations of photosynthesis under drought conditions. And that these two species showed different responses in terms of excess energy dissipation and alternative electron sinks of CTE to alleviate the chloroplast ROS production, preventing photo-oxidation. In addition, it has been shown that castor bean plants are more sensitive to drought than J. curcas. Moreover, the NPQ is an important mechanism for drought tolerance of J. curcas whereas R. communis for not having a so efficient NPQ need to invest in other alternative electron sinks to dissipate the excess energy. In the fourth and final chapter, we evaluated the responses of photosynthesis of J. curcas and R. commnuis young plants exposed to salt stress. The salt treatment increased membrane damage only in leaves of J. curcas. The content of organic compatible osmolytes increased in both species exposed to salinity. Castor bean plants had mainly stomatal limitations of photosynthesis due to fall in Ci and by the maintaining in Rubisco activity. However, J. curcas plants exposed to salinity showed stomatal and metabolic restrictions on photosynthesis, demonstrated by the increase in Ci and a drop in Rubisco activity. Castor bean plants exposed to salinity showed higher nitrate assimilation and photorespiration, compared with J. curcas plants under salt stress condition. However, J. curcas had higher dissipation and excess energy as heat (NPQ). In conclusion, our data suggest that both species employ different mechanisms to dissipate excess energy in the CTE of the chloroplast, preventing photoinhibition and photo-oxidative damage.