The relative constancy of the initial slope with temperature is caused by the increasing Michaelis–Menten constant of Rubisco and the increasing oxygenation to carboxylation ratio with increasing temperature. Several plants adjust the J max /V Cmax ratio by increasing it (measured at a common temperature)

check details with decreasing growth temperature (Hikosaka et al. 1999), causing a homeostatic tendency in the co-limitation C i, but not all species do so (Onoda et al. 2005). The adjustment contributes to efficient utilization of resources that are devoted to J max and V Cmax. The photosynthetic growth irradiance responses as described above has also been documented for Arabidopsis thaliana (Walters Selleckchem ZD1839 2005) and cold and warm temperature effects on photosynthetic performance have been extensively investigated as well (Stitt and

Hurry 2002). These studies showed that Arabidopsis is very well capable of acclimation to shade and cold. The latter is not surprising since most of its populations exhibit a winter annual life history (Mitchell-Olds and Schmitt 2006), which means that much of its growth occurs in the cool season. However, the possible interacting effects of growth temperature and irradiance on photosynthetic characteristics have not been investigated in this or in other species. The first question to be addressed is to what extent the effect on photosynthetic acclimation of growth temperature depends from on growth irradiance and vice versa. It is hypothesized that the two factors may interact, since several aspects of photosynthetic acclimation are shared. To investigate the interaction, Arabidopsis was grown at two levels of irradiance and temperature in a factorial design. Since the plants were grown in constant conditions, developmental acclimation is addressed here as distinguished from dynamic acclimation in response to a change in growth conditions that is regulated differently (Athanasiou et

al. 2010). Arabidopsis thaliana has a large geographical distribution (Koornneef et al. 2004) involving substantial climatic variation. Intraspecific variation in capability of photosynthetic acclimation to irradiance and temperature is known from other species (Björkman and Holmgren 1963; Pearcy 1977; Flood et al. 2011). This has not been investigated in Arabidopsis. The second question to be addressed is whether intraspecific variation in the capability of photosynthetic acclimation to temperature and irradiance exists in Arabidopsis. It is hypothesized that such variation is present in two accessions from contrasting latitudes. Accessions from the Cape Verde Islands and from Finland were included in the study as a first investigation of possible climatic adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus to the local climate in A. thaliana.