Dark-chilling Pretreatment Protects PSI from Light-chilling Damage

In chilling-sensitive plants, the donor side of Photosystem II is inhibited by the chilling treatment in the dark, while the acceptor side of Photosystem I is inhibited by the chilling under the moderate light. Since the addition of inhibitors of electron transfer from Photosystem II protects Photosystem I from chilling induced photoinhibition of Photosystem I, inhibition or down-regulation of Photosystem II activity in vivo may also protect Photosystem I from photoinhibition. It was revealed that dark-chilling pretreatment actually protected Photosystem I from photoinhibition. The results imply that down-regulation of Photosystem II under stress conditions may have a role to protect Photosystem I from photoinhibition.