Effects of abiotic stress on photosystem II proteins

Photosystem II (PSII) represents the most vulnerable component of the photosynthetic machinery and its response in plants subjected to abiotic stress has been widely studied over many years. PSII is a thylakoid membrane-located multiprotein pigment complex that catalyses the light-induced electron transfer from water to plastoquinone with the concomitant production of oxygen. PSII is rich in intrinsic (PsbA and PsbD, namely D1 and D2, CP47 or PsbB and CP43 or PsbC) but also extrinsic proteins. The first ones are more largely conserved from cyanobacteria to higher plants while the extrinsic proteins are different among species. It has been found that extrinsic proteins involved in oxygen evolution change dramatically the PSII efficiency and PSII repair systems. However, little information is available on the effects of abiotic stress on their function and structure.