Differential responses of double petal and multi petal jasmine to shading: I. Photosynthetic characteristics and chloroplast ultrastructure.

A double petal (DP) and a multi petal (MP) type jasmine (Jasminum sambac Ait.) growth and flowering was known largely affected by different levels of irradiance. Here, our objective was to determine the effects of shade on photosynthesis related characteristics and chloroplast ultrastructure of these two types. In both types, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (g(s)) and transpiration rate increased with decreasing irradiance from 100% to 20%, while both maximum and variable fluorescence showed a steady increase, and photochemical and nonphotochemical quenching indexes declined. At each conducted time, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids contents in DP type shaded leaves increased whereas those in MP type decreased at 5% irradiance (considered as extreme shade). The maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II of DP plants showed subtle changes but that of MP plants declined by shading thereafter 21 days of treatment. Observation of chloroplast ultrastructure showed its best development in the leaves of DP and MP types mostly from 50% to 20% irradiance (considered as weak and moderate shade, respectively). At each shade treatment, Pn, g(s) and water use efficiency of DP-jasmine were always higher than those of MP-jasmine, thus the shade tolerance ability of the former was higher than that of the latter. The results showed that full sunlight and 5% natural irradiance caused photoinhibition and light deficiency of jasmine plants respectively, and modulating chloroplast development by the more numbers of thylakoids and grana to contain more photosynthetic pigments is an important shade tolerance mechanism of DP type.