• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.56-59
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• 2013

Plant phytochromes, molecular light switches that regulate various aspects of plant growth and development, are known as autophosphorylating serine/threonine kinases. Although recent studies reveal that phytochrome autophosphorylation plays an important role in the regulation of phytochrome signaling through the control of phyA protein stability, the in vivo functional roles of phytochrome kinase activity in plant light signaling are largely unknown. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the detailed function of phytochrome as a protein kinase, which might include mapping of kinase domain on the phytochrome molecule, searching for substrates that could be phosphorylated by phyA, and in vivo functional analysis of the kinase activity with phytochrome mutants displaying reduced kinase activity. Our recent studies reveal that the kinase activity of phytochrome plays a positive role in plant light signaling. Therefore, we highlight the current knowledge about the functional roles of phytochrome kinase activity in the light signal transduction of plants, based on our recent results.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 2010

Expression of the genes for carotenoid bio-synthesis (crt) is dependent on light, but little is known about the underlying mechanism of light sensing and signalling in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (hereafter, Synechocystis). In the present study, we investigated the light-induced increase in the transcript levels of Synechocystis crt genes, including phytoene synthase (crtB), phytoene desaturase (crtP), ${\zeta}$-carotene desaturase (crtQ), and ${\beta}$-carotene hydroxylase (crtR), during a darkto-light transition period. During the dark-to-light shift, the increase in the crt transcript levels was not affected by mutations in cyanobacterial photoreceptors, such as phytochromes (cph1, cph2 and cph3) and a cryptochrome-type photoreceptor (ccry), or respiratory electron transport components NDH and Cyd/CtaI. However, treatment with photosynthetic electron transport inhibitors significantly diminished the accumulation of crt gene transcripts. Therefore, the light induction of the Synechocystis crt gene expression is most likely mediated by photosynthetic electron transport rather than by cyanobacterial photoreceptors during the dark-to-light transition.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.548-555
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• 1997

Sorghum seedlings lacking one of the phytochromes, phyB, have elongated internode, suggesting that they may have an alteration in gibberellin physiology. To test the possibility that phyB mutations affect seedling gibberellin perception and metabolism, the responsiveness of wild-type and phyB-1 seedlings to exogenous $GA_3$ was investigated. The phyB-1 showed higher internode elongation rate than the wild type in response to lower concentrations of exogenous $GA_3$ application, showing that the mutation causes an increase in responsiveness to GA. However, at the higher concentrations of $GA_3$ application, phyB-l and wild-type showed similar elongation rate, impling that responsiveness to higher concentrations of GA is not controlled by phytochrome. These results suggest that, although GAs are required for internode elongation, phyB does not act primarily by changing absolute levels of GAs but rather by decreasing seedling responsiveness to GAs at lower concentrations.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.559-564
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• 2012

In order to investigate the effect of phytochromes on the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis, we measured the ethylene production and the activities of enzymes involved in ethylene biosynthesis using phytochrome mutants such as $phyA$, $phyB$, and $phyAB$ of Arabidopsis. The ethylene production was decreased in mutants grown in white light. In particular, double mutants showed a 37% decrease compared to the wild type in ethylene production. When Arabidopsis roots were grown in the dark, mutants did not show a decrease in ethylene production; however, production was significantly decreased in the double mutant grown in red light. Only $phyB$ did not show the decrease in the ethylene production in far-red light. Unlike the ACO activities, the ACS activities of mutants showed the same pattern as the ethylene production under several light conditions. The results of ACS activities confirmed the expression of the ACS gene by RT-PCR analysis. The decrease of ethylene production in mutants was due to the lower activity of ACC synthase, which converts the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) to 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), the precursor of ethylene. These results suggested that both phytochrome A and B play an important role in the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis in Arabidopsis roots in the conversion step of AdoMet to ACC, which is regulated by ACS.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 1984

The terrestrial UV flux rapidly increased in late spring, as measured by the chemical actinometry at two elevations (near sea level and 1,100m above sea level) on Jeju Island. More intense UV fluxes were observed at higher altitudes. Any harmful effects of solar UV-B on the growth of soybean were not detected in UV-B-exclusion experiment. To ascertain the effect of UV radiation on vegetative growth, intact (㏖ wt 124000) and large (${\sim}120000$) phytochromes were irradiated with UV-B radiation. In intact phytochrome, the Pfr form accounts for 60% of the total phytochrome under stationary state conditions, whereas it accounts for 50% in large phytochrome. Calculated quantum yields for the forward and the backward phototransformations of phytochrome by UV were ${\phi}r=0.016$ and ${\phi}fr=0.010$ in intact phytochrome, and ${\phi}r={\phi}fr=0.012$ in large phytochrome, respectively.