The Loss of Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase Caused by 24-Hour Rain Treatment Fully Explains the Decrease in the Photosynthetic Rate in Bean Leaves

Recently, we have found that simulated rainfall causes a chronic inhibition of leaf photosynthesis in Phaseolus vulgaris (M. Ishibashi and I. Terashima [1995] Plant Cell Environ 18: 431–438). Mechanisms of this inhibition were examined in the present study. After the plants were treated with continuous mist for 24 h and then dried to unwet conditions, light-saturated photosynthetic rates of the leaves measured at 35 Pa ambient CO2 decreased to one-half of the control level. The extractable activity of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) also decreased to the same extent. Unexpectedly, this decline was due not to the lowered activation state but to the decrease in the amount of Rubisco. Before or after the “rain” treatment, the relationship between the net photosynthetic rate and the amount of Rubisco was expressed as a unique linear function with a small intercept (r2 = 0.84). From these it was inferred that the main cause of the rain-induced decline in photo-synthetic rate was the loss in amount of Rubisco.