PLANTS absorb light for photosynthesis but as light can itself be dang
erous to plants, they need to protect themselves against its damaging
effects, Here we show that photorespiration can act as such a defence
mechanism, We constructed transgenic tobacco plants enriched or reduce
d in plastidic glutamine synthetase (GS2), a key enzyme in photorespir
ation. Those transgenic plants having twice the normal amount of GS2 h
ad an improved capacity for photorespiration and an increased toleranc
e to high-intensity light, whereas those with a reduced amount of GS2
had a diminished capacity for photorespiration and were photoinhibited
more severely by high-intensity light compared with control plants, W
e conclude that photorespiration protects C3 plants from photoinhibiti
on.