Abstract

Coral bleaching caused by heat stress is accompanied by photoinhibition, which occurs under conditions where the rate of photodamage to photosystem II (PSII) exceeds the rate of its repair, in the symbiotic algae (Symbiodinium spp.) within corals. However, the mechanism of heat stress-induced photoinhibition in Symbiodinium still remains poorly understood. In the present work, we have investigated the effect of elevated temperature on the processes associated with the repair of photodamaged PSII in cultured Symbiodinium (OTcH-1 and CS-73). Severe photoinhibition was observed at temperature exceeding 32 °C in Symbiodinium CS-73 cells grown at 25–34 °C but not in cultures of the more thermally tolerant Symbiodinium OTcH-1. After photoinhibition treatment by strong light, photodamaged PSII was repaired close to initial levels under low light at 25 °C in both OTcH-1 and CS-73. However, the repair was strongly inhibited by increased temperature exceeding 31 °C in CS-73 but only weakly in OTcH-1. We found that inhibition of the repair process in CS-73 is attributed to impairment of both protein synthesis-dependent and -independent repair processes and is at least partially caused by suppression of the de novo synthesis of thylakoid membrane proteins and impairment of the generation of ΔpH across the thylakoid membrane, respectively. Our results suggest that acceleration of photoinhibition by moderate heat stress is attributed primarily to inhibition of the repair of photodamaged PSII and that the photoinhibition sensitivity of Symbiodinium to heat stress is determined by the thermal sensitivity of the PSII repair processes.