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Yellow vine symptoms are often observed in cranberry bogs. To explore the mechanisms of the formation of yellow vine syndrome in cranberry leaves, the shade effect on the chlorophyll (Chl) content and photosynthetic activities in cranberry bogs were investigated by spectrometric, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and in vivo Chl fluorescence kinetics. Spectrometric and HPLC analyses revealed that the yellow vine leaves were associated with a 11% ± 5% and 14% ± 5% increase in Chl a/Chl b ratio after shading, respectively. The Chl a/Chl b ratio was the same in both types of leaves, suggesting the photosystem (PS) II organization remains invariant. The rise in chlorophyll content suggested that the number of reaction sites on PS II is increased in the shaded yellow vine leaves. The results of in vivo chlorophyll fluorescence analysis also indicated that the electron transport chain in the PS II is enhanced and that the size of the quinone pool is increased. In addition, the overall photosynthesis index is drastically improved by shading. These three lines of evidence imply that the shading of cranberry plants appeared to reduce the syndrome by improving the photosynthetic activity and increasing the chlorophyll content. The techniques presented here may be valuable for characterizing variations of plants by stress or disease.
Numerous observations of yellow vine syndrome of cranberry have been reported from commercial cranberry growers. The molecular mechanism resulting in yellow vine syndrome is unknown. We have previously reported on the shading effect as an approach to explore the mechanisms of yellow vine formation and proposed photoinhibition as a possible cause. To compare the photosynthetic performance of yellow vine-affected and normal cranberry leaves, we conducted chlorophyll fluorescence analyses over 1 period of 1 day and 3 weeks, respectively. Both experimental data sets indicated that the maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II, the size of the quinone pool, the numbers of reaction centers (RCs) per chlorophyll absorption, and the photosynthesis performance index of the yellow vine samples are substantially lower than those of normal cranberry leaves. These results are in line with the data of yellow vine leaves, having 26% to 28% less in chlorophyll than the normal leaves as measured by spectrometric and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. We concluded that yellow vine syndrome is associated with poor photosynthetic activity and is likely becoming a threat for the long-term growth and crop production of cranberries.