Project description:Plant phytochromes, renowned phosphoproteins, are red and far-red photoreceptors that regulate growth and development in response to light signals. Studies on phytochrome phosphorylation postulate that the N-terminal extension (NTE) and hinge region between N- and C-domains are sites of phosphorylation. Further studies have demonstrated that phosphorylation in the hinge region is important for regulating protein-protein interactions with downstream signaling partners, and phosphorylation in the NTE partakes in controlling phytochrome activity for signal attenuation and nuclear import. Moreover, phytochrome-associated protein phosphatases have been reported, indicating a role of reversible phosphorylation in phytochrome regulation. Furthermore, phytochromes exhibit serine/threonine kinase activity with autophosphorylation, and studies on phytochrome mutants with impaired or increased kinase activity corroborate that they are functional protein kinases in plants. In addition to the autophosphorylation, phytochromes negatively regulate PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTORs (PIFs) in a light-dependent manner by phosphorylating them as kinase substrates. Very recently, a few protein kinases have also been reported to phosphorylate phytochromes, suggesting new views on the regulation of phytochrome via phosphorylation. Using these recent advances, this review details phytochrome regulation through phosphorylation and highlights their significance as protein kinases in plant light signaling.
Project description:This study aimed to evaluate short-duration (24 h) UV-B irradiation as a preharvest abiotic stressor in canola plants. Moreover, we quantified the expression levels of genes related to bioactive compounds synthesis in response to UV-B radiation. Canola seedlings were cultivated in a plant factory under artificial light (200 μmol m-2 s-1 photosynthetic photon flux density; white LED lamps; 16 h on/8 h off), 25°C/20°C daytime/nighttime air temperature, and 70% relative humidity. Eighteen days after sowing, the seedlings were subjected to supplemental UV-B treatment. The control plants received no UV-B irradiation. The plants were exposed to 3, 5, or 7 W m-2 UV-B irradiation. There were no significant differences in shoot fresh weight between the UV-B-irradiated and control plants. With increasing UV-B irradiation intensity and exposure time, the H2O2 content gradually increased, the expression levels of genes related to photosynthesis downregulated, and phenylpropanoid and flavonoid production, and also total phenolic, flavonoid, antioxidant, and anthocyanin concentrations were significantly enhanced. The genes related to secondary metabolite biosynthesis were immediately upregulated after UV-B irradiation. The relative gene expression patterns identified using qRT-PCR corroborated the variations in gene expression that were revealed using microarray analysis. The time point at which the genes were induced varied with the gene location along the biosynthetic pathway. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a temporal difference between the accumulation of antioxidants and the induction of genes related to the synthesis of this compound in UV-B-treated canola plants. Our results demonstrated that short-term UV-B irradiation could augment antioxidant biosynthesis in canola without sacrificing crop yield or quality.
Project description:Plant phytochromes perceive red and far-red light to elicit adaptations to the changing environment. Downstream physiological responses revolve around red-light-induced interactions with phytochrome-interacting factors (PIF). Phytochromes double as thermoreceptors, owing to the pronounced temperature dependence of thermal reversion from the light-adapted Pfr to the dark-adapted Pr state. Here, we assess whether thermoreception may extend to the phytochrome:PIF interactions. While the association between Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) PHYTOCHROME B (PhyB) and several PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF) variants moderately accelerates with temperature, the dissociation does more so, thus causing net destabilization of the phytochrome:PIF complex. Markedly different temperature profiles of PIF3 and PIF6 might underlie stratified temperature responses in plants. Accidentally, we identify a photoreception mechanism under strong continuous light, where the extent of phytochrome:PIF complexation decreases with red-light intensity rather than increases. Mathematical modeling rationalizes this attenuation mechanism and ties it to rapid red-light-driven Pr⇄Pfr interconversion and complex dissociation out of Pr. Varying phytochrome abundance, e.g., during diurnal and developmental cycles, and interaction dynamics, e.g., across different PIFs, modify the nature and extent of attenuation, thus permitting light-response profiles more malleable than possible for the phytochrome Pr⇄Pfr interconversion alone. Our data and analyses reveal a photoreception mechanism with implications for plant physiology, optogenetics, and biotechnological applications.
Project description:The aim of this study was to evaluate short-duration (24 h) UV-B irradiation (3, 5, 7 W m-2) as a preharvest abiotic stressor in canola plants. Agilent One-Color Gene Expression Microarray analysis was conducted using an Agilent-022520 Brassica napus 4x44K Array.
Project description:Artificial regulation of state transition between photosystem I (PSI) and PSII will be a smart and promising way to improve efficiency of natural photosynthesis. In this work, we found that a synthetic light-harvesting polymer [poly(boron-dipyrromethene-co-fluorene) (PBF)] with green light absorption and far-red emission could improve PSI activity of algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa, followed by further upgrading PSII activity to augment natural photosynthesis. For light-dependent reactions, PBF accelerated photosynthetic electron transfer, and the productions of oxygen, ATP and NADPH were increased by 120, 97, and 76%, respectively. For light-independent reactions, the RuBisCO activity was enhanced by 1.5-fold, while the expression levels of rbcL encoding RuBisCO and prk encoding phosphoribulokinase were up-regulated by 2.6 and 1.5-fold, respectively. Furthermore, PBF could be absorbed by the Arabidopsis thaliana to speed up cell mitosis and enhance photosynthesis. By improving the efficiency of natural photosynthesis, synthetic light-harvesting polymer materials show promising potential applications for biofuel production.
Project description:It has been suggested that plant phytochromes are autophosphorylating serine/threonine kinases. However, the biochemical properties and functional roles of putative phytochrome kinase activity in plant light signalling are largely unknown. Here, we describe the biochemical and functional characterization of Avena sativa phytochrome A (AsphyA) as a potential protein kinase. We provide evidence that phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs) are phosphorylated by phytochromes in vitro. Domain mapping of AsphyA shows that the photosensory core region consisting of PAS-GAF-PHY domains in the N-terminal is required for the observed kinase activity. Moreover, we demonstrate that transgenic plants expressing mutant versions of AsphyA, which display reduced activity in in vitro kinase assays, show hyposensitive responses to far-red light. Further analysis reveals that far-red light-induced phosphorylation and degradation of PIF3 are significantly reduced in these transgenic plants. Collectively, these results suggest a positive relationship between phytochrome kinase activity and photoresponses in plants.
Project description:Phytochrome-dependent light signaling has been studied in several fungi. In Aspergillus nidulans light-stimulated phytochrome activates the HOG signaling pathway and thereby controls the expression of a large number of genes, many of which are related to stress responses. In a genome-wide expression analysis in A. nidulans we found that phytochrome, fphA, is under strict expression control of the central regulator of the sulfur-starvation response, MetR. This transcriptional regulator is required for the expression of genes involved in inorganic sulfur assimilation. In the presence of organic sulfur, MetR is probably ubiquitinated and possibly degraded and the transcription of sulfur-assimilation genes, e.g. sulfate permease, is turned off. The expression analysis described here revealed, however, that MetR additionally controls the expression of hundreds of genes, many of which are required for secondary metabolite production. We also show that metR mutation phenocopies fphA deletion, and five other histidine-hybrid kinases are down-regulated in the metR1 mutant. Furthermore, we show that light and phytochrome regulate the expression of at least three carbon-sulfur hydrolases. This work is a further step towards understanding the interplay between light sensing and metabolic pathways.
Project description:Organisms developed different photoreceptors to be able to adapt to changing environmental light conditions. Phytochromes are red/far-red (r/fr) photochromic photoreceptors that belong to the classical photoreceptors along with cryptochromes and phototropins. They convert absorbed light into a biological signal by switching between two states in a light-dependent manner therefore enabling the light control downstream signalling. Their Pfr conformation is the biological active form in plants, but until now only a structure of the ground state (Pr) was solved. Here, the authors provide information about structural changes occurring during photoconversion within phytochrome B and identify possible interaction sites for its N-terminal extension (NTE) utilising hydrogen/deuterium exchange rate analyses of its amide backbone. Especially, the newly identified light-dependency of two regions in the NTE are of particular interest for understanding the involvement of the phytochrome's NTE in the regulation of its downstream signalling.
Project description:Time course following a low light to high light shift. Strains used are wild type (CC-125) and npq1 lor1. Results in "VALUE" column are the log2 of Cy3/Cy5 ratios following normalization in SNOMAD. Keywords: time-course