Measuring the Effect of Chromate Pollution on Duckweed Half-Fronds by Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Accumulated chromate from the medium was responsible for the inhibition of the photosystem II. In this study, we focused on the alteration of the photosynthetic apparatus through analysis of the Chlorophyll a fluorescence of duckweed half-fronds. Chromate induced the K step on the fluorescence transient in 6-BA treated half-fronds. Chromate affected several targets of photosynthetic II apparatus. The oxygen evolving complex (OEC) was the more highly sensitive to chromate than the reaction center (RC) in 6-BA treated half-fronds. We showed that 6-BA treated half-fronds would be taken as a potential useful system to estimate the effect of water pollution.