The protecting effect of histidine on the photodamage of pigments and proteins of the isolated PSⅠ particles from the chloroplast of Spinacia oleracea L. during the strong illumination (2 300 μmol·m -2 ·s -1 ) was studied by spectroscopy and SDS_PAGE. The absorbance of PSⅠ particles decreased during the strong illumination treatment, but the decrease would be slowed down in the presence of externally added histidine after 30 min illumination. The decrease of CD (circular dichroism) signal intensities of PSⅠ particles also was slowed down by the added histidine after about 10 min illumination. The retarded protecting effect of the added histidine on the photobleaching of pigments of PSⅠ complexes implied that the mechanisms of photoinhibition of isolated PSⅠ complexes are different from early stage to later stage during the strong illumination treatment. In addition, the added histidine suppressed the decrease of 77 K fluorescence yield of PSⅠ particles during the illumination. SDS_PAGE showed that the added histidine not only protected the reaction center proteins of PSⅠ particles, but also protected other subunits of PSⅠ particles from degradation.
