title: Light-regulated interactions with SPA proteins underlie cryptochrome-mediated gene expression.
abstract: Cryptochromes are a class of photosensory receptors that control important processes in animals and plants primarily by regulating gene expression. How photon absorption by cryptochromes leads to changes in gene expression has remained largely elusive. Three recent studies, including Lian and colleagues (pp. 1023-1028) and Liu and colleagues (pp. 1029-1034) in this issue of Genes & Development, demonstrate that the interaction of light-activated Arabidopsis cryptochromes with a class of regulatory components of E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes leads to environmentally controlled abundance of transcriptional regulators.
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. christian.fankhauser@unil.ch
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fankhauser
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ulm
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D056931:Cryptochromes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000378:metabolism; D035264:Flowers / Q000378:metabolism; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008027:Light; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D015398:Signal Transduction; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C103618:CRY2 protein, Arabidopsis; D056931:Cryptochromes; D010940:Plant Proteins; C105777:storage protein activator; C471983:AT2G32950 protein, Arabidopsis; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases