PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - William T. Salter AU - Andrew M. Merchant AU - Richard A. Richards AU - Richard Trethowan AU - Thomas N. Buckley TI - Rate of photosynthetic acclimation to fluctuating light varies widely among genotypes of wheat AID - 10.1101/435834 DP - 2018 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 435834 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/05/435834.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/05/435834.full AB - Significant variation exists in the acclimation time of photosynthesis following dark-to-light transitions across wheat genotypes, under field and controlled conditions. Slow acclimation reduced daily carbon assimilation by up to 16%.Abstract Crop photosynthesis and yield are limited by slow photosynthetic induction in sunflecks. We quantified variation in induction kinetics across diverse genotypes of wheat for the first time. In a preliminary study using penultimate leaves of 58 genotypes grown in the field, we measured induction kinetics for maximum assimilation rate (Amax) after a shift from full darkness to saturating light (1700 μmol m−2 s−1) with 1-4 replicates per genotype. We then grew 10 of these genotypes with contrasting responses in a controlled environment and quantified induction kinetics of carboxylation capacity (Vcmax) from dynamic A vs ci curves after a shift from low to high light (50 to 1500 μmol m−2 s−1), with 5 replicates per genotype. Within-genotype median time for 95% induction (t95) varied from 8.4 to 23.7 min across genotypes for Amax in field-grown penultimate leaves, and from 6.7 to 10.4 min for Vcmaxin chamber-grown flag leaves. Our simulations suggested that non-instantaneous acclimation reduces daily net carbon gain by up to 16%, and that breeding to speed up Vcmax induction in the slowest genotype to match that in the fastest genotype could increase daily net carbon gain by more than 4%, particularly for leaves that experience predominantly short-duration sunflecks.