Low, but non‐freezing, temperatures have negative effects on plant growth and development. Despite some molecular signalling pathways being known, the mechanisms causing different responses among genotypes are still poorly understood. Photosynthesis is one of the processes that are affected by low temperatures. Using an automated phenotyping platform for chlorophyll fluorescence imaging the steady state quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII) electron transport (Φ_PSII) was measured and used to quantify the effect of moderately low temperature on a population of Arabidopsis thaliana natural accessions. Observations were made over the course of several weeks in standard and low temperature conditions and a strong decrease in Φ_PSII upon the cold treatment was found. A genome wide association study identified several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that are associated with changes in Φ_PSII in low temperature. One candidate for a cold specific QTL was validated with a mutant analysis to be one of the genes that is likely involved in the PSII response to the cold treatment. The gene encodes the PSII associated protein PSB27 which has already been implicated in the adaptation to fluctuating light.

中文翻译：

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拟南芥低温条件下光合效率的自然变化。

低温但不冻结对植物的生长和发育有负面影响。尽管已知一些分子信号传导途径，但引起基因型不同应答的机制仍知之甚少。光合作用是受低温影响的过程之一。使用用于叶绿素荧光成像的自动表型分析平台，测量了光系统II（PSII）电子传输（_ΦPSII）的稳态量子产率，并用于量化中等低温对拟南芥天然种质种群的影响。在标准和低温条件下进行了数周的观察，_ΦPSII急剧下降经冷处理后被发现。全基因组关联研究确定了几个与低温下_ΦPSII的变化有关的定量性状位点（QTL）。通过突变分析验证了一种针对寒冷的特异性QTL的候选基因，该基因可能是可能对PSII响应的一种基因。该基因编码与PSII相关的蛋白质PSB27，该蛋白质已经参与了对波动光的适应。