Plants (Dec 2021)

Metamitron, a Photosynthetic Electron Transport Chain Inhibitor, Modulates the Photoprotective Mechanism of Apple Trees

  • Yuval Tadmor,
  • Amir Raz,
  • Shira Reikin-Barak,
  • Vivek Ambastha,
  • Eli Shemesh,
  • Yehoram Leshem,
  • Omer Crane,
  • Raphael A. Stern,
  • Martin Goldway,
  • Dan Tchernov,
  • Oded Liran

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122803
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 12
p. 2803

Abstract

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Chemical thinning of apple fruitlets is an important practice as it reduces the natural fruit load and, therefore, increases the size of the final fruit for commercial markets. In apples, one chemical thinner used is Metamitron, which is sold as the commercial product Brevis® (Adama, Ashdod, Israel). This thinner inhibits the electron transfer between Photosystem II and Quinone-b within light reactions of photosynthesis. In this study, we investigated the responses of two apple cultivars—Golden Delicious and Top Red—and photosynthetic light reactions after administration of Brevis®. The analysis revealed that the presence of the inhibitor affects both cultivars’ energetic status. The kinetics of the photoprotective mechanism’s sub-processes are attenuated in both cultivars, but this seems more severe in the Top Red cultivar. State transitions of the antenna and Photosystem II repair cycle are decreased substantially when the Metamitron concentration is above 0.6% in the Top Red cultivar but not in the Golden Delicious cultivar. These attenuations result from a biased absorbed energy distribution between photochemistry and photoprotection pathways in the two cultivars. We suggest that Metamitron inadvertently interacts with photoprotective mechanism-related enzymes in chloroplasts of apple tree leaves. Specifically, we hypothesize that it may interact with the kinases responsible for the induction of state transitions and the Photosystem II repair cycle.

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