Moderate drought stress stabilizes the primary quinone acceptor QA and the secondary quinone acceptor QB in photosystem II

Drought induces stomata closure and lowers the CO2 concentration in the mesophyll, limiting CO2 assimilation and favoring photorespiration. The photosynthetic apparatus is protected under drought conditions by a number of downregulation mechanisms like photosynthetic control and activation of cyclic electron transport leading to the generation of a high proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane. Here, we studied photosynthetic electron transport by chlorophyll fluorescence, thermoluminescence (TL), and P700 absorption measurements in spinach exposed to moderate drought stress. Chlorophyll fluorescence induction and decay kinetics were slowed down. Under drought conditions, an increase of the TL AG‐band and a downshift of the maximum temperatures of both, the B‐band and the AG‐band, were observed when leaves were illuminated under conditions that maintained the proton gradient. When leaves were frozen prior to the TL measurements, the maximum temperature of the B‐band was upshifted in drought‐stressed leaves. This shows a stabilization of the QB/QB•− redox couple in accordance with the slower fluorescence decay kinetics. We propose that during drought stress, photorespiration exerts a feedback control on photosystem II via the binding of a photorespiratory metabolite at the non‐heme iron at the acceptor side of photosystem II. According to our hypothesis, an exchange of bicarbonate at the non‐heme iron by a photorespiratory metabolite such as glycolate would not only affect the midpoint potential of the QA/QA•− couple, as shown previously, but also that of the QB/QB•− couple.