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The effects of NaCl treatment on the photosynthetic machinery in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars differing in salt tolerance were investigated by comparison with iso-osmotic PEG treatment. Both cultivars similarly reduced the photosystem 2 (PS2) energy conversion efficiency (ΦPS2) rapidly when plants were exposed to a 100 mM NaCl solution, though no decline was detected under the iso-osmotic PEG treatment. There was no correlation between the reduction of the leaf relative water content (RWC) and the ΦPS2 in the two iso-osmotic stress treatments. In contrast, a decline of ΦPS2 along with the increase of the leaf sodium content above 4 % dry matter was detected under the NaCl treatment, while no such correlation was detected with other cations. The recovery of ΦPS2 after photoinhibitory irradiation was repressed by the NaCl treatment as the increase of the duration of the treatment. Norin 61 subjected to the 100 mM NaCl treatment for 10 d showed a decline of the ΦPS2 after 1 h moderate irradiation of 400 μmol m-2 s-1 PPFD. Thus the concentrated Na+ within a leaf under salinity treatments may decrease the stability of PS2 functions and lead to photochemical inactivation.
Muranaka et al. (Sun,) studied this question.