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Microalgae can respond to long-term increases in light intensity by altering the concentration of photosynthetic complexes. Under active growth, the ability of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to acclimate to excess light is dependent on cell division to reduce the concentration of photosynthetic complexes. But, in batch culture, cells eventually reach stationary phase where their ability to divide is limited; this should impact their capacity to undergo photoacclimation. Our goal is to dissect excess-light responses as cells approach stationary phase and to determine how the strategies of photoacclimation differ compared to cells in the exponential-growth phase. In this study, cultures exited exponential growth and transitioned into a declining growth phase (DGP), where cells continued a slow rate of growth for the next seven days in both low (LL) and high-light (HL). During this period, both cultures experience a conditional senescence-related decline in chlorophyll levels. Under HL, however, the senescing cultures have a rapid decline in PSII reaction centres, maintain a stable concentration of LHCII antenna, rapidly increase LHCSR levels, and have a sustained increase in Fo/Fm. Collectively this implies that the remaining antenna act as pH-dependent, quenching centres, presumably to protect the senescing chloroplast against HL. We discovered that acclimating to HL post-exponential phase involves active degradation that is intertwined with the normal senescence process that allowed for a limited rate of cell division., (Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

When challenged with excess light, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii responds, in part, by down-regulating light harvesting capacity at Photosystem II while concomitantly reorganising cellular metabolism to increase sink capacity. We examined the role of translational control during different stages of photoacclimation by analysing polysome profiles of two different light-harvesting complex (LHC) genes encoding a major LHCII component (Lhcbm) and CP29 (Lhcb4) plus iron superoxide dismutase (FeSOD), and through measurement of protein synthesis by in vivo labelling. Within two hours following transfer of low-light (LL) acclimated cultures into high-light (HL), Lhcbm transcripts are off-loaded from polysomes indicating a decline in translational initiation. Lhcbm translational repression at two hours was specific since FeSOD mRNA remained associated with polysomes and in vivo labelling showed an increase in overall protein synthesis. After 4 hours HL exposure, however, a global disassembly of polysomes was detected suggesting a general decline in translational initiation. Interestingly, the decrease in polysomes coincides with maximal FeSOD transcript levels emphasizing that transcript profiles do not always accurately reflect gene expression. Within 8 hours after LL to HL shift, polysomes reform and all transcripts examined are loaded back onto polysomes. Disassembly of polysomes was mimicked by hydrogen peroxide application to non-shifted cultures suggesting that production of hydrogen peroxide due to HL-stress may effect the general decline in polysomes observed during HL acclimation.