Phytochrome | |||||||||
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![]() Crystal structure of phytochrome. [1] | |||||||||
Identifiers | |||||||||
Symbol | Phytochrome | ||||||||
Pfam | PF00360 | ||||||||
InterPro | IPR013515 | ||||||||
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Phytochromes are a class of photoreceptor proteins found in plants, bacteria and fungi. They respond to light in the red and far-red regions of the visible spectrum and can be classed as either Type I, which are activated by far-red light, or Type II that are activated by red light. [2] Recent advances have suggested that phytochromes also act as temperature sensors, as warmer temperatures enhance their de-activation. [3] All of these factors contribute to the plant's ability to germinate.
Phytochromes control many aspects of plant development. They regulate the germination of seeds (photoblasty), the synthesis of chlorophyll, the elongation of seedlings, the size, shape and number and movement of leaves and the timing of flowering in adult plants. Phytochromes are widely expressed across many tissues and developmental stages. [2]
Other plant photoreceptors include cryptochromes and phototropins, which respond to blue and ultraviolet-A light and UVR8, which is sensitive to ultraviolet-B light.
Phytochromes consist of a protein, covalently linked to a light-sensing bilin chromophore. [4] The protein part comprises two identical chains (A and B). Each chain has a PAS domain, GAF domain and PHY domain. Domain arrangements in plant, bacterial and fungal phytochromes are comparable, insofar as the three N-terminal domains are always PAS, GAF and PHY domains. However C-terminal domains are more divergent. The PAS domain serves as a signal sensor and the GAF domain is responsible for binding to cGMP and also senses light signals. Together, these subunits form the phytochrome region, which regulates physiological changes in plants to changes in red and far red light conditions. In plants, red light changes phytochrome to its biologically active form, while far red light changes the protein to its biologically inactive form.
Phytochromes are characterized by a red/far-red photochromicity. Photochromic pigments change their "color" (spectral absorbance properties) upon light absorption. In the case of phytochrome the ground state is Pr, the r indicating that it absorbs red light particularly strongly. The absorbance maximum is a sharp peak 650–670 nm, so concentrated phytochrome solutions look turquoise-blue to the human eye when viewed with white light. But once a red photon has been absorbed, the pigment undergoes a rapid conformational change to form the Pfr state. Here fr indicates that now not red but far-red (also called "near infra-red"; 705–740 nm) is differentially absorbed. This shift in absorbance is apparent to the human eye as a slightly more greenish color. When Pfr absorbs far-red light it is converted back to Pr. Hence, red light makes Pfr, far-red light makes Pr. In plants at least Pfr is the physiologically active or "signalling" state.
Phytochromes also have the ability to sense light, which causes the plant to grow towards it. This is called phototropism. [7] Janoudi and his fellow coworkers wanted to see what type of phytochrome was responsible for causing phototropism to occur, and performed a series of experiments. They found that blue light causes the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to exhibit a phototropic response; this curvature is heightened with the addition of red light. [7] They also found that five different phytochromes were present in the plant, while some mutants that did not function properly expressed a lack of phytochromes. [7] Two of these mutant variants were very important for this study: phyA-101 and phyB-1. [7] These are the mutants of phytochrome A and B respectively. The normally functional phytochrome A causes a sensitivity to far red light, and it causes a regulation in the expression of curvature toward the light, whereas phytochrome B is more sensitive to the red light. [7]
The experiment consisted in the wild-type form of Arabidopsis, phyA-101(phytochrome A (phyA) null mutant), phyB-1 (phytochrome B deficient mutant). [7] They were then exposed to white light as a control blue and red light at different fluences of light, the curvature was measured. [7] It was determined that in order to achieve a phenotype of that of the wild-type phyA-101 must be exposed to four orders of higher magnitude or about 100umol m−2 fluence. [7] However, the fluence that causes phyB-1 to exhibit the same curvature as the wild-type is identical to that of the wild-type. [7] The phytochrome that expressed more than normal amounts of phytochrome A it was found that as the fluence increased the curvature also increased up to 10umol-m−2 the curvature was similar to the wild-type. [7] The phytochrome expressing more than normal amounts of phytochrome B exhibited curvatures similar to that of the wild type at different fluences of red light up until the fluence of 100umol-m−2 at fluences higher than this curvature was much higher than the wild-type. [7]
Thus, the experiment resulted in the finding that another phytochrome than just phytochrome A acts in influencing the curvature since the mutant is not that far off from the wild-type, and phyA is not expressed at all. [7] Thus leading to the conclusion that two phases must be responsible for phototropism. They determined that the response occurs at low fluences, and at high fluences. [7] This is because for phyA-101 the threshold for curvature occurred at higher fluences, but curvature also occurs at low fluence values. [7] Since the threshold of the mutant occurs at high fluence values it has been determined that phytochrome A is not responsible for curvature at high fluence values. [7] Since the mutant for phytochrome B exhibited a response similar to that of the wild-type, it had been concluded that phytochrome B is not needed for low or high fluence exposure enhancement. [7] It was predicted that the mutants that over expressed phytochrome A and B would be more sensitive. However, it is shown that an over expression of phy A does not really effect the curvature, thus there is enough of the phytochrome in the wild-type to achieve maximum curvature. [7] For the phytochrome B over expression mutant higher curvature than normal at higher fluences of light indicated that phy B controls curvature at high fluences. [7] Overall, they concluded that phytochrome A controls curvature at low fluences of light. [7]
Phytochromes can also affect root growth. It has been well documented that gravitropism is the main tropism in roots. However, a recent study has shown that phototropism also plays a role. A red light induced positive phototropism has been recently recorded in an experiment that used Arabidopsis to test where in the plant had the most effect on a positive phototropic response. The experimenters utilized an apparatus that allowed for root apex to be zero degrees so that gravitropism could not be a competing factor. When placed in red light, Arabidopsis roots displayed a curvature of 30 to 40 degrees. This showed a positive phototropic response in the red light. They then wanted to pinpoint exactly where in the plant light is received. When roots were covered there was little to no curvature of the roots when exposed to red light. In contrast, when shoots were covered, there was a positive phototropic response to the red light. This proves that lateral roots is where light sensing takes place. In order to further gather information regarding the phytochromes involved in this activity, phytochrome A, B, D and E mutants, and WT roots were exposed to red light. Phytochrome A and B mutants were severely impaired. There was no significant difference in the response of phyD and phyE compared with the wildtype, proving that phyA and phyB are responsible for positive phototropism in roots.
Chemically, phytochrome consists of a chromophore , a single bilin molecule consisting of an open chain of four pyrrole rings, covalently bonded to the protein moiety via highly conserved cysteine amino acid. It is the chromophore that absorbs light, and as a result changes the conformation of bilin and subsequently that of the attached protein, changing it from one state or isoform to the other.
The phytochrome chromophore is usually phytochromobilin, and is closely related to phycocyanobilin (the chromophore of the phycobiliproteins used by cyanobacteria and red algae to capture light for photosynthesis) and to the bile pigment bilirubin (whose structure is also affected by light exposure, a fact exploited in the phototherapy of jaundiced newborns). The term "bili" in all these names refers to bile. Bilins are derived from the closed tetrapyrrole ring of haem by an oxidative reaction catalyzed by haem oxygenase to yield their characteristic open chain. Chlorophyll and haem (Heme) share a common precursor in the form of Protoporphyrin IX, and share the same characteristic closed tetrapyrrole ring structure. In contrast to bilins, haem and chlorophyll carry a metal atom in the center of the ring, iron or magnesium, respectively. [8]
The Pfr state passes on a signal to other biological systems in the cell, such as the mechanisms responsible for gene expression. Although this mechanism is almost certainly a biochemical process, it is still the subject of much debate. It is known that although phytochromes are synthesized in the cytosol and the Pr form is localized there, the Pfr form, when generated by light illumination, is translocated to the cell nucleus. This implies a role of phytochrome in controlling gene expression, and many genes are known to be regulated by phytochrome, but the exact mechanism has still to be fully discovered. It has been proposed that phytochrome, in the Pfr form, may act as a kinase, and it has been demonstrated that phytochrome in the Pfr form can interact directly with transcription factors. [9]
The phytochrome pigment was discovered by Sterling Hendricks and Harry Borthwick at the USDA-ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland during a period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Using a spectrograph built from borrowed and war-surplus parts, they discovered that red light was very effective for promoting germination or triggering flowering responses. The red light responses were reversible by far-red light, indicating the presence of a photoreversible pigment.
The phytochrome pigment was identified using a spectrophotometer in 1959 by biophysicist Warren Butler and biochemist Harold Siegelman. Butler was also responsible for the name, phytochrome.
In 1983 the laboratories of Peter Quail and Clark Lagarias reported the chemical purification of the intact phytochrome molecule, and in 1985 the first phytochrome gene sequence was published by Howard Hershey and Peter Quail. By 1989, molecular genetics and work with monoclonal antibodies that more than one type of phytochrome existed; for example, the pea plant was shown to have at least two phytochrome types (then called type I (found predominantly in dark-grown seedlings) and type II (predominant in green plants)). It is now known by genome sequencing that Arabidopsis has five phytochrome genes (PHYA - E) but that rice has only three (PHYA - C). While this probably represents the condition in several di- and monocotyledonous plants, many plants are polyploid. Hence maize, for example, has six phytochromes - phyA1, phyA2, phyB1, phyB2, phyC1 and phyC2. While all these phytochromes have significantly different protein components, they all use phytochromobilin as their light-absorbing chromophore. Phytochrome A or phyA is rapidly degraded in the Pfr form - much more so than the other members of the family. In the late 1980s, the Vierstra lab showed that phyA is degraded by the ubiquitin system, the first natural target of the system to be identified in eukaryotes.
In 1996 David Kehoe and Arthur Grossman at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University identified the proteins, in the filamentous cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon called RcaE with similarly to plant phytochrome that controlled a red-green photoreversible response called chromatic acclimation and identified a gene in the sequenced, published genome of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis with closer similarity to those of plant phytochrome. This was the first evidence of phytochromes outside the plant kingdom. Jon Hughes in Berlin and Clark Lagarias at UC Davis subsequently showed that this Synechocystis gene indeed encoded a bona fide phytochrome (named Cph1) in the sense that it is a red/far-red reversible chromoprotein. Presumably plant phytochromes are derived from an ancestral cyanobacterial phytochrome, perhaps by gene migration from the chloroplast to the nucleus. Subsequently, phytochromes have been found in other prokaryotes including Deinococcus radiodurans and Agrobacterium tumefaciens . In Deinococcus phytochrome regulates the production of light-protective pigments, however in Synechocystis and Agrobacterium the biological function of these pigments is still unknown.
In 2005, the Vierstra and Forest labs at the University of Wisconsin published a three-dimensional structure of a truncated Deinococcus phytochrome (PAS/GAF domains). This paper revealed that the protein chain forms a knot - a highly unusual structure for a protein. In 2008, two groups around Essen and Hughes in Germany and Yang and Moffat in the US published the three-dimensional structures of the entire photosensory domain. One structures was for the Synechocystis sp. (strain PCC 6803) phytochrome in Pr and the other one for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa phytochrome in the Pfr state. The structures showed that a conserved part of the PHY domain, the so-called PHY tongue, adopts different folds. In 2014 it was confirmed by Takala et al that the refolding occurs even for the same phytochrome (from Deinococcus) as a function of illumination conditions.
Around 1989, several laboratories were successful in producing transgenic plants which produced elevated amounts of different phytochromes ( overexpression ). In all cases the resulting plants had conspicuously short stems and dark green leaves. Harry Smith and co-workers at Leicester University in England showed that by increasing the expression level of phytochrome A (which responds to far-red light), shade avoidance responses can be altered. [10] As a result, plants can expend less energy on growing as tall as possible and have more resources for growing seeds and expanding their root systems. This could have many practical benefits: for example, grass blades that would grow more slowly than regular grass would not require mowing as frequently, or crop plants might transfer more energy to the grain instead of growing taller.
In 2002, the light-induced interaction between a plant phytochrome and phytochrome-interacting factor (PIF) was used to control gene transcription in yeast. This was the first example of using photoproteins from another organism for controlling a biochemical pathway. [11]
Arabidopsis thaliana, the thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis, is a small plant from the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and Africa. Commonly found along the shoulders of roads and in disturbed land, it is generally considered a weed.
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the surface of the soil, but roots can also be aerial or aerating, that is, growing up above the ground or especially above water.
Auxins are a class of plant hormones with some morphogen-like characteristics. Auxins play a cardinal role in coordination of many growth and behavioral processes in plant life cycles and are essential for plant body development. The Dutch biologist Frits Warmolt Went first described auxins and their role in plant growth in the 1920s. Kenneth V. Thimann became the first to isolate one of these phytohormones and to determine its chemical structure as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Went and Thimann co-authored a book on plant hormones, Phytohormones, in 1937.
Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants.
Photopigments are unstable pigments that undergo a chemical change when they absorb light. The term is generally applied to the non-protein chromophore moiety of photosensitive chromoproteins, such as the pigments involved in photosynthesis and photoreception. In medical terminology, "photopigment" commonly refers to the photoreceptor proteins of the retina.
Gravitropism is a coordinated process of differential growth by a plant in response to gravity pulling on it. It also occurs in fungi. Gravity can be either "artificial gravity" or natural gravity. It is a general feature of all higher and many lower plants as well as other organisms. Charles Darwin was one of the first to scientifically document that roots show positive gravitropism and stems show negative gravitropism. That is, roots grow in the direction of gravitational pull and stems grow in the opposite direction. This behavior can be easily demonstrated with any potted plant. When laid onto its side, the growing parts of the stem begin to display negative gravitropism, growing upwards. Herbaceous (non-woody) stems are capable of a degree of actual bending, but most of the redirected movement occurs as a consequence of root or stem growth outside. The mechanism is based on the Cholodny–Went model which was proposed in 1927, and has since been modified. Although the model has been criticized and continues to be refined, it has largely stood the test of time.
In developmental biology, photomorphogenesis is light-mediated development, where plant growth patterns respond to the light spectrum. This is a completely separate process from photosynthesis where light is used as a source of energy. Phytochromes, cryptochromes, and phototropins are photochromic sensory receptors that restrict the photomorphogenic effect of light to the UV-A, UV-B, blue, and red portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Shade avoidance is a set of responses that plants display when they are subjected to the shade of another plant. It often includes elongation, altered flowering time, increased apical dominance and altered partitioning of resources. This set of responses is collectively called the shade-avoidance syndrome (SAS).
Cryptochromes are a class of flavoproteins found in plants and animals that are sensitive to blue light. They are involved in the circadian rhythms and the sensing of magnetic fields in a number of species. The name cryptochrome was proposed as a portmanteau combining the chromatic nature of the photoreceptor, and the cryptogamic organisms on which many blue-light studies were carried out.
Far-red light is a range of light at the extreme red end of the visible spectrum, just before infrared light. Usually regarded as the region between 700 and 750 nm wavelength, it is dimly visible to human eyes. It is largely reflected or transmitted by plants because of the absorbance spectrum of chlorophyll, and it is perceived by the plant photoreceptor phytochrome. However, some organisms can use it as a source of energy in photosynthesis. Far-red light also is used for vision by certain organisms such as some species of deep-sea fishes and mantis shrimp.
Bilins, bilanes or bile pigments are biological pigments formed in many organisms as a metabolic product of certain porphyrins. Bilin was named as a bile pigment of mammals, but can also be found in lower vertebrates, invertebrates, as well as red algae, green plants and cyanobacteria. Bilins can range in color from red, orange, yellow or brown to blue or green.
Photoreceptor proteins are light-sensitive proteins involved in the sensing and response to light in a variety of organisms. Some examples are rhodopsin in the photoreceptor cells of the vertebrate retina, phytochrome in plants, and bacteriorhodopsin and bacteriophytochromes in some bacteria. They mediate light responses as varied as visual perception, phototropism and phototaxis, as well as responses to light-dark cycles such as circadian rhythm and other photoperiodisms including control of flowering times in plants and mating seasons in animals.
In plant biology, nyctinasty is the circadian rhythm-based nastic movement of higher plants in response to the onset of darkness, or a plant "sleeping". Nyctinastic movements are associated with diurnal light and temperature changes and controlled by the circadian clock. It has been argued that for plants that display foliar nyctinasty, it is a crucial mechanism for survival; however, most plants do not exhibit any nyctinastic movements. Nyctinasty is found in a range of plant species and across xeric, mesic, and aquatic environments, suggesting that this singular behavior may serve a variety of evolutionary benefits. Examples are the closing of the petals of a flower at dusk and the sleep movements of the leaves of many legumes.
In biology, phototropism is the growth of an organism in response to a light stimulus. Phototropism is most often observed in plants, but can also occur in other organisms such as fungi. The cells on the plant that are farthest from the light contain a hormone called auxin that reacts when phototropism occurs. This causes the plant to have elongated cells on the furthest side from the light. Phototropism is one of the many plant tropisms, or movements, which respond to external stimuli. Growth towards a light source is called positive phototropism, while growth away from light is called negative phototropism. Negative phototropism is not to be confused with skototropism, which is defined as the growth towards darkness, whereas negative phototropism can refer to either the growth away from a light source or towards the darkness. Most plant shoots exhibit positive phototropism, and rearrange their chloroplasts in the leaves to maximize photosynthetic energy and promote growth. Some vine shoot tips exhibit negative phototropism, which allows them to grow towards dark, solid objects and climb them. The combination of phototropism and gravitropism allow plants to grow in the correct direction.
Both fluence rates and irradiance of light are important signals for plants and are detected by phytochrome. Exploiting different modes of photoreversibility in this molecule allow plants to respond to different levels of light. There are three main types of fluence rate governed responses that are brought about by different levels of light.
Circadian Clock Associated 1 (CCA1) is a gene that is central to the circadian oscillator of angiosperms. It was first identified in Arabidopsis thaliana in 1993. CCA1 interacts with LHY and TOC1 to form the core of the oscillator system. CCA1 expression peaks at dawn. Loss of CCA1 function leads to a shortened period in the expression of many other genes.
LUX or Phytoclock1 (PCL1) is a gene that codes for LUX ARRHYTHMO, a protein necessary for circadian rhythms in Arabidopsis thaliana. LUX protein associates with Early Flowering 3 (ELF3) and Early Flowering 4 (ELF4) to form the Evening Complex (EC), a core component of the Arabidopsis repressilator model of the plant circadian clock. The LUX protein functions as a transcription factor that negatively regulates Pseudo-Response Regulator 9 (PRR9), a core gene of the Midday Complex, another component of the Arabidopsis repressilator model. LUX is also associated with circadian control of hypocotyl growth factor genes PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) and PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 5 (PIF5).
Biliproteins are pigment protein compounds that are located in photosynthesising organisms such as algae, and sometimes also in certain insects. They refer to any protein that contains a bilin chromophore. In plants and algae, the main function of biliproteins is to make the process of light accumulation required for photosynthesis more efficient; while in insects they play a role in growth and development. Some of their properties: including light-receptivity, light-harvesting and fluorescence have made them suitable for applications in bioimaging and as indicators; while other properties such as anti-oxidation, anti-aging and anti-inflammation in phycobiliproteins have given them potential for use in medicine, cosmetics and food technology. While research on biliproteins dates back as far as 1950, it was hindered due to issues regarding biliprotein structure, lack of methods available for isolating individual biliprotein components, as well as limited information on lyase reactions . Research on biliproteins has also been primarily focused on phycobiliproteins; but advances in technology and methodology, along with the discovery of different types of lyases, has renewed interest in biliprotein research, allowing new opportunities for investigating biliprotein processes such as assembly/disassembly and protein folding.
EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) is a plant-specific gene that encodes the hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein and is required for the function of the circadian clock. ELF3 is one of the three components that make up the Evening Complex (EC) within the plant circadian clock, in which all three components reach peak gene expression and protein levels at dusk. ELF3 serves as a scaffold to bind EARLY FLOWERING 4 (ELF4) and LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX), two other components of the EC, and functions to control photoperiod sensitivity in plants. ELF3 also plays an important role in temperature and light input within plants for circadian clock entrainment. Additionally, it plays roles in light and temperature signaling that are independent from its role in the EC.
Elaine Munsey Tobin is a professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Tobin is recognized as a Pioneer Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).