Phytochrome and retrograde signalling pathways converge to antagonistically regulate a light-induced transcriptional network

Guiomar Martín, Pablo Leivar, Dolores Ludevid, James M. Tepperman, Peter H. Quail and Elena Monte ()
Additional contact information
Guiomar Martín: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB
Pablo Leivar: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB
Dolores Ludevid: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB
James M. Tepperman: University of California
Peter H. Quail: University of California
Elena Monte: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Plastid-to-nucleus retrograde signals emitted by dysfunctional chloroplasts impact photomorphogenic development, but the molecular link between retrograde- and photosensory-receptor signalling has remained unclear. Here, we show that the phytochrome and retrograde signalling (RS) pathways converge antagonistically to regulate the expression of the nuclear-encoded transcription factor GLK1, a key regulator of a light-induced transcriptional network central to photomorphogenesis. GLK1 gene transcription is directly repressed by PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF)-class bHLH transcription factors in darkness, but light-activated phytochrome reverses this activity, thereby inducing expression. Conversely, we show that retrograde signals repress this induction by a mechanism independent of PIF mediation. Collectively, our data indicate that light at moderate levels acts through the plant’s nuclear-localized sensory-photoreceptor system to induce appropriate photomorphogenic development, but at excessive levels, sensed through the separate plastid-localized RS system, acts to suppress such development, thus providing a mechanism for protection against photo-oxidative damage by minimizing the tissue exposure to deleterious radiation.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11431 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11431

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11431

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().