Work

Multiple transcription-factor genes are early targets of phytochrome A signaling

Year: 2001

Type: article

Abstract: The phytochrome family of sensory photoreceptors directs adaptational changes in gene expression in response to environmental light signals. Using oligonucleotide microarrays to measure expression profiles in wild-type and phytochrome A (phyA) null-mutant Arabidopsis seedlings, we have shown that 10% of the genes represented on the array are regulated by phyA in response to a continuous far-red light signal. Strikingly, 44% of the genes responding to the signal within 1 h are predicted to encode multiple classes of transcriptional regulators. Together with previous data, this observation suggests that phyA may regulate seedling photomorphogenesis by direct targeting of light signals to the promoters of genes encoding a master set of diverse transcriptional regulators, responsible in turn for orchestrating the expression of multiple downstream target genes in various branches of a phyA-regulated transcriptional network.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.161300998

Authors: James M. Tepperman, Tong Zhu, Hur-Song Chang, Xun Wang, Peter H. Quail

Institutions: Agricultural Research Service, Plant Gene Expression Center, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Light effects on plants

Subfield: Plant Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, Agricultural Research Service, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Award: Phytochrome A: Structure/Function and Signaling Pathways