Differential inhibition of photosynthesis during pre-flowering drought stress in Sorghum bicolor genotypes with different senescence traits

Young (16-day-old) Sorghum bicolor plants of a late- and slow-senescing Texas A&M line (B 35) and of an early- and fast-senescing descendant of an Ethiopian landrace (E 36-1) were subjected to drought stress by decreasing the soil water content to 30% field capacity over 6 days. Plant water potentials decreased from - 2 bar (controls) to - 10 to - 18 bar, and this drought stress resulted in: (1) differential phenotypic reactions and (2) differential decreases in photosynthesis rates in the two cultivars. While E 36-1 tended to lose viable leaf area from the leaf tips downwards, B 35 showed a gradual overall drying of the leaf. At the same time, photosynthesis rates decreased from 31.5 ± 1.6 to 12.3 ± 5.0 μmol CO2m-2 s-1 (E 36-1) and from 30.5 ± 1.6 to 3.3 ± 2.6 μmol CO2 m-2 s-1 (B 35), respectively. In vitro enzyme activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and malic enzyme (ME) on a leaf area basis exceeded the photosynthesis rates. Pyruvate phosphate dikinase (PPDK) activity was close to the photosynthesis rates in control plants and higher than the photosynthesis rates in drought-stressed plants. Thus, none of the enzymes appeared to limit photosynthesis under drought stress, and likely bottleneck enzyme activities of the C3 pathway in the bundle-sheath cells, i.e. ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RubisCO) and stromal fructose-1,5-bisphosphatase (sFBPase), also showed sufficient activities to sustain higher photosynthesis rates than those observed in the stressed plants. However, under drought stress, total leaf malate concentrations were higher in B 35 (up to 33.1 μmol g-1 FW) than in E 36-1 (up to 22.4 μmol g-1 FW). In particular, at the presumed cytosolic pH of 7.0-7.3, 5. bicolor PEPCase was strongly inhibited by malate. In contrast with the in vitro PEPCase enzyme activities, the A/Ci curves suggested a stronger decrease in the in vivo activity of the enzyme in B 35 under drought stress than in E 36-1. It is therefore suggested that photosynthesis under drought stress may be inhibited differentially through feedback malate inhibition of PEPCase in S. bicolor.