In natural habitats, plants frequently experience rapid changes in the intensity of sunlight. To cope with these changes and maximize growth, plants adjust photosynthetic light utilization in electron transport and photoprotective mechanisms. This involves a proton motive force (PMF) across the thylakoid membrane, postulated to be affected by unknown anion (Cl−) channels. Here we report that a bestrophin-like protein from Arabidopsis thaliana functions as a voltage-dependent Cl− channel in electrophysiological experiments. AtVCCN1 localizes to the thylakoid membrane, and fine-tunes PMF by anion influx into the lumen during illumination, adjusting electron transport and the photoprotective mechanisms. The activity of AtVCCN1 accelerates the activation of photoprotective mechanisms on sudden shifts to high light. Our results reveal that AtVCCN1, a member of a conserved anion channel family, acts as an early component in the rapid adjustment of photosynthesis in variable light environments.

Plants respond to changes in light quality by regulating the absorption capacity of their photosystems. These short-term adaptations use redox-controlled, reversible phosphorylation of the lightharvesting complexes (LHCIIs) to regulate the relative absorption cross-section of the two photosystems (PSs), commonly referred to as state transitions. It is acknowledged that state transitions induce substantial reorganizations of the PSs. However, their consequences on the chloroplast structure are more controversial. Here, we investigate how state transitions affect the chloroplast structure and function using complementary approaches for the living cells of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using small-angle neutron scattering, we found a strong periodicity of the thylakoids in state 1, with characteristic repeat distances of ∼200 Å, which was almost completely lost in state 2. As revealed by circular dichroism, changes in the thylakoid periodicity were paralleled by modifications in the long-range order arrangement of the photosynthetic complexes, which was reduced by ∼20% in state 2 compared with state 1, but was not abolished. Furthermore, absorption spectroscopy reveals that the enhancement of PSI antenna size during state 1 to state 2 transition (∼20%) is not commensurate to the decrease in PSII antenna size (∼70%), leading to the possibility that a large part of the phosphorylated LHCIIs do not bind to PSI, but instead form energetically quenched complexes, which were shown to be either associated with PSII supercomplexes or in a free form. Altogether these noninvasive in vivo approaches allow us to present a more likely scenario for state transitions that explains their molecular mechanism and physiological consequences.green algae | photosynthesis | thylakoid membrane T he efficient operation of the photosynthetic machinery of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms requires a balanced energy supply to the two photosystems (PSs) under changing environments. To avoid unbalanced excitations of the two PSs, a rapid acclimation mechanism, state transitions (STs), takes place, which allows redistributing the excitation energy between the two PSs. ST is seen in green algae and vascular plants and is modulated by the redox-controlled, reversible phosphorylation of LHCII, the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b antenna complex. A serine-threonine protein kinase, STN7 in vascular plants (1) and Stt7 in green algae (2), is responsible for this phosphorylation. Stt7/STN7 activity depends on the redox state of the plastoquinone (PQ) pool, which is sensed by the cytochrome b 6 f complex (3).According to the current model of STs, preferential PSII excitation leads to PQ reduction, and thus to LHCII phosphorylation by the kinase. The PQ pool can also be reduced in dark anaerobic conditions in algal suspensions. In this state, called state 2 (S2), phosphorylated LHCII dissociates from PSII, thereby reducing its absorption cross-section, and associates to PSI, acting as an additional antenna for this complex. In the reverse process, prefere...