title: Phytochrome ancestry: sensors of bilins and light.
abstract: Phytochromes were long thought to have evolved in non-motile photosynthetic eukaryotes for adaptation to unfavorable light environments, but recent studies suggest that phytochromes evolved billions of years earlier from a tetrapyrrole sensor protein progenitor. These investigations have identified phytochromes and phytochrome-related proteins in photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria and purple bacteria), nonphotosynthetic eubacteria and fungi - an observation that has opened new avenues for investigating the origins, molecular evolution and biochemical functions of this ecologically important family of plant photoreceptors.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Beronda L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: J Clark
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lagarias
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D001654:Bile Pigments / Q000378:metabolism*; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008027:Light; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010788:Photosynthesis; D010802:Phylogeny; D010834:Phytochrome / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001654:Bile Pigments; D010834:Phytochrome