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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Photosynthesis and Photobiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1478346
This article is part of the Research Topic Photosynthesis under Variable Environmental Conditions View all articles

Modelling light response of effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II for C3 and C4 crops

Provisionally accepted
Xiao-Long Yang Xiao-Long Yang 1Ting An Ting An 2Zi-Wu-Yin Ye Zi-Wu-Yin Ye 3Huajing Kang Huajing Kang 4Piotr Robakowski Piotr Robakowski 5Fu-Biao Wang Fu-Biao Wang 6Zi-Piao Ye Zi-Piao Ye 6*Shuang-Xi Zhou Shuang-Xi Zhou 7*
  • 1 Nantong University, Nantong, China
  • 2 College of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
  • 3 Guangdong Baiyun University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
  • 4 Wenzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 5 Department of Forestry, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland
  • 6 The Institute of Biophysics in College of Mathematics and Physics, Jinggangshan University, Jiangxi, China
  • 7 Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development of Western Australia (DPIRD), South Perth, Western Australia, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) represents the proportion of photons of incident light that are actually used for photochemical processes, which is a key determinant of crop photosynthetic efficiency and productivity. A robust model which can accurately reproduce the nonlinear light response of PSII (PSII-I) over the I range from zero to high irradiance levels is lacked.In this study, we tested a PSII-I model based on the fundamental properties of light absorption and transfer of energy to the reaction centers via photosynthetic pigment molecules. Using a modellingobservation intercomparison approach, the performance of our model versus three widely used empirical PSII-I models were compared against observations for two C3 crops (peanut and cotton) and two cultivars of a C4 crop (sweet sorghum). The results highlighted the significance of our model in (1) its accurate and simultaneous reproduction of light response of both PSII and the photosynthetic electron transport rate (ETR) over a wide I range from light-limited to photoinhibition I levels, and (2) accurately returning key parameters defining the light response curves.

    Keywords: Ye model, effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), Non-photochemical quenching, light absorption cross-section, light-harvesting pigment molecules, Photosynthetic light response

    Received: 09 Aug 2024; Accepted: 04 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yang, An, Ye, Kang, Robakowski, Wang, Ye and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Zi-Piao Ye, The Institute of Biophysics in College of Mathematics and Physics, Jinggangshan University, Jiangxi, China
    Shuang-Xi Zhou, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development of Western Australia (DPIRD), South Perth, 6151, Western Australia, Australia

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