title: Phytochrome requires the 6-kDa N-terminal domain for full biological activity.
abstract: Phytochrome is a red/far-red-absorbing photoreceptor that controls many aspects of plant photomorphogenesis. Because proteolytic removal of approximately 6 kDa from the N terminus of 124-kDa oat phytochrome substantially alters many physicochemical properties of the chromoprotein, it has been proposed that the N terminus is required for biological activity. Here we test this hypothesis by comparing tobacco plants expressing full-length oat phytochrome (FL) with plants expressing a 118-kDa oat phytochrome lacking amino acids 7-69 (NA phytochrome). NA phytochrome, like its FL counterpart, exists as a homodimer in solution, is capable of covalently binding chromophore to form a red/far-red-photoreversible product, and is rapidly degraded in vivo after photoconversion to the far-red-absorbing form. However, like proteolytically degraded phytochrome missing the N terminus, the absorption maxima of the red- and far-red-light-absorbing forms of NA phytochrome are blue shifted relative to the maxima of the FL chromoprotein, and the rate of dark reversion of the far-red- to red-light-absorbing form is substantially increased. Tobacco plants producing high levels of NA phytochrome do not exhibit the light-exaggerated phenotype characteristic of FL phytochrome overexpression. By comparison of phytochrome-dose-phenotype-response curves generated by using a series of transgenic lines expressing various levels of FL or NA phytochrome, we demonstrate that NA phytochrome has less than 1/5th the biological activity of FL phytochrome expressed in tobacco. Furthermore, the shape of the dose-response curve for plants expressing FL phytochrome indicates that there is a sharp transition between phenotypically normal and abnormal plants over a relatively narrow range of phytochrome content, demonstrating that precise control of phytochrome levels is critical to photomorphogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cherry
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hondred
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Vierstra
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010834:Phytochrome / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000254:growth & development*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D010834:Phytochrome