Acclimation of the Resurrection Plant Haberlea rhodopensis to Changing Light Conditions

Resurrection plants present an attractive model for studying the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance. In addition to drought, the presence of light during desiccation is extremely dangerous. In the present study, we investigated the effect of light during the desiccation of shade and sun <i>Haberlea rhodopensis</i> from two different habitats by measuring the changes in electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde and proline content, and photosynthetic and antioxidant activities. Moreover, the plasticity and acclimation ability of plants to changing light intensities were studied by desiccating shade plants under high light and sun plants under low light. The most significant differences between shade and sun plants were observed under moderate dehydration. Regardless of some decline in PSII activity in sun plants, it was much higher compared to shade plants. The lower PSII efficiency in the latter was accompanied by a higher extent of excitation pressure and consequently significant enhancement in non-photochemical quenching, Y(NPQ), and especially in the fraction of energy that is passively dissipated as heat and fluorescence, Y(NO). The activity of antioxidant enzymes remained high during the desiccation of <i>H. rhodopensis</i>, being higher in the sun compared to shade plants in an air-dried state. In addition, shade and sun plants showed high acclimation capacity when desiccated at opposite light intensities.