Alteration of photochemistry and protein degradation of photosystem II from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under high salt grown cells

•Effects of high salt on photochemistry and protein degradation of PSII in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.•Energy transfer within PSII is impaired.•Pigment–pigment interactions were changed.•Differential degradation of both reaction and LHCII proteins.

In this study, we evaluated the inhibitory effect of NaCl on cell growth, photochemistry and protein profile of photosystem (PS) II in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. To study the effect of NaCl on the photosynthetic apparatus, the C. reinhardtii cells were grown at different concentrations (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM). NaCl induced flagellar resorption due to which the cells lost their motility, formation of palmelloids, reduced cell size and slower cell division. Chlorophyll fluorescence transients at different NaCl concentrations had decreased intensities of all peaks (OJIP) indicating the apparent inactivation energies of both donor and acceptor side of PSII. Consequently, inhibition of electron transport occurred particularly at PSII. Further, low temperature emission spectra showed that the rate of damage to the PSII was more when compared to PSI. Also, we have carried out the visible circular dichroism spectra from thylakoids where the major peaks contributed to chlorophyll a and b are equally reduced in different salt grown cells, which may explain the changes at the level of inter pigment–pigment interactions. Furthermore protein profile analysis of PSII revealed that the major subunit of light harvesting complex (LHC)II is more prone to salt stress than core proteins of PSII indicating the light harvesting funnel from LHCII to PSII core is impaired.