Photosynthesis, chloroplast ultrastructure, chemical composition and oxidative stress in Theobroma cacao hybrids with the lethal gene Luteus-Pa mutant

The Theobroma lethal character Luteus-Pa segregates in a 3:1 ratio, expresses in recessive homozygosis, initially inducing leaf chlorosis and finally provoking seedlings death. The objective of this work was to evaluate gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence emission, chemical composition and oxidative stress of wild and mutant seedlings resulting from the crosses Pa 30 × Pa 169 and its reciprocal, aiming to elucidate the seedlings death induced by Luteus-Pa. At 15 day after emergence (DAE) differences began to appear between the wild type and mutant. Mutant seedlings showed: (1) lack of photosynthesis and alterations in chloroplast morphology; (2) lower level of three abundant groups of proteins in leaves; (3) decrease in the content of chloroplastidic pigments (4) decrease in peroxidases activities and increase in leaf polyphenol oxidase activity; (5) decrease in carbohydrate and concentration of some nutrients and low dry mass in all plant parts. In leaves of mutant seedlings of both crosses damages occurred in the system responsible for the photochemical phase of photosynthesis. Variations in growth parameters and subsequent seedling death up to 60 DAE were related to exhaustion of cotyledonary reserves, inactive photosynthetic apparatus and oxidative stress.