title: Illuminating Progress in Phytochrome-Mediated Light Signaling Pathways.
abstract: Light signals regulate a plethora of plant responses throughout their life cycle, especially the red and far-red regions of the light spectrum perceived by the phytochrome family of photoreceptors. However, the mechanisms by which phytochromes regulate gene expression and downstream responses remain elusive. Several recent studies have unraveled the details on how phytochromes regulate photomorphogenesis. These include the identification of E3 ligases that degrade PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF) proteins, key negative regulators, in response to light, a better view of how phytochromes inhibit another key negative regulator, CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1), and an understanding of why plants evolved multiple negative regulators to repress photomorphogenesis in darkness. These advances will surely fuel future research on many unanswered questions that have intrigued plant photobiologists for decades.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and The Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaosa
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and The Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Inyup
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Paik
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and The Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences and The Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: huq@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Enamul
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Huq
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D003624:Darkness; D008027:Light; D055537:Light Signal Transduction; D010834:Phytochrome / Q000378:metabolism*; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D010834:Phytochrome; C471983:AT2G32950 protein, Arabidopsis; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases