title: Sensing the light environment in plants: photoreceptors and early signaling steps.
abstract: Plants must constantly adapt to a changing light environment in order to optimize energy conversion through the process of photosynthesis and to limit photodamage. In addition, plants use light cues for timing of key developmental transitions such as initiation of reproduction (transition to flowering). Plants are equipped with a battery of photoreceptors enabling them to sense a very broad light spectrum spanning from UV-B to far-red wavelength (280-750nm). In this review we briefly describe the different families of plant photosensory receptors and the mechanisms by which they transduce environmental information to influence numerous aspects of plant growth and development throughout their life cycle.
authors: Centre for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors: Vinicius Costa
authors: VC
authors: Galvão
authors: Centre for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: christian.fankhauser@unil.ch.
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Fankhauser
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D008027:Light; D055519:Photoreceptors, Plant / Q000502:physiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D055519:Photoreceptors, Plant