Photodynamic herbicides VIII. Mandatory requirement of light for the induction of protoporphyrin IX accumulation in acifluorfen-treated cucumber†

TLDR: In this paper, it was shown that continuous illumination is mandatory for the induction of tetrapyrrole accumulation in acifluen-sodium-treated plants and for the photosensitization of tetraphyrrole-dependent photodynamic damage.

Abstract: It is shown that continuous illumination is mandatory for the induction of tetrapyrrole accumulation in acifluorfen-sodium-treated plants and for the photosensitization of tetrapyrrole-dependent photodynamic damage. At low concentrations of acifluorfen-sodium (up to 20 μM), photoporphyrin IX appears to be the major light-induced tetrapyrrole that accumulates in the treated plants. At higher concentrations of acifluorfen-sodium, monovinyl chlorophyllide a accumulates in addition to protoporphyrin IX. In the light, the development of photodynamic injury appears to be directly related to the accumulation of the light-induced tetrapyrroles. For example when acifluorfen-sodium-treated plants are returned to darkness, or are treated with tetrapyrrole biosynthesis inhibitors, tetrapyrrole accumulation and photodynamic injury come to a halt. In-vivo and in-organello studies failed, however, to support the commonly held hypothesis that the induction of tetrapyrrole accumulation in the light, in acifluorfen-sodium-treated plants, is only dependent on the inhibition of protoporphyrinogen oxidase. Indeed, when plastids capable of very high rates of tetrapyrrole biosynthesis and accumulation were incubated with δ-aminolevulinic acid and acifluorfen-sodium, either in darkness or in the light, a severe inhibition of protoporphyrin IX and total terapyrrole formation was observed. Althoung these results are compatible with the inhibition of tetrapyrrole formation by acifluorfensodium at the level of protoporphyrinogen oxidase, they indicate that, in addition to that inhibition, other cuellular processes are probably involved in the light-dependent accumulation of protoporphyrin IX in acifluorfensodium-treated plants.