Effect of High Temperature on Photosynthetic Electron Transport Activities of the Cyanobacterium Spirulina Platensis

The activities of photosystem 2 (PS2) and whole chain electron transport declined in high temperature treated cells at the room temperature beyond 35 °C, while photosystem 1 (PS1) showed increased activity. Thylakoid membrane studies did not exhibit increase in PS1 activity indicating that the enhancement of PS1 activity is due to permeability change of cell membranes. However, the electron transport activity measured from reduced duroquinone to methylviologen which involves intersystem electron transport was extremely sensitive to high temperature. The activity of PS2 at different irradiance, which was accompanied by alterations in absorption and fluorescence emission properties, indicated changes in the energy transfer processes within phycobilisomes. Thus high temperature has multiple target sites in photosynthetic electron transport system of Spirulina platensis.