Reichb. fil., locally known as the spring orchid in the Republic of Korea, is one of the most important and popular horticultural species in the family Orchidaceae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe CRISPR/Cas9 system has been widely applied as a precise gene-editing tool for studying gene functions as well as improving agricultural traits in various crop plants. Here, we optimized a gene-editing system in lettuce ( L.) using the endogenous promoter and proved that the gene is a versatile target gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhototropins (phot1 and phot2) are plant-specific blue light receptors that mediate chloroplast movement, stomatal opening, and phototropism. Phototropin is composed of the N-terminus LOV1 and LOV2 domains and the C-terminus Ser/Thr kinase domain. In previous studies, 35-P2CG transgenic plants expressing the phot2 C-terminal fragment-GFP fusion protein (P2CG) under the control of promoter showed constitutive phot2 responses, including chloroplast avoidance response, stomatal opening, and reduced hypocotyl phototropism regardless of blue light, and some detrimental growth phenotypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants are sessile and require diverse strategies to adapt to fluctuations in the surrounding light conditions. Consequently, the photorelocation movement of chloroplasts is essential to prevent damages that are induced by intense light (avoidance response) and to ensure efficient photosynthetic activities under weak light conditions (accumulation response). The mechanisms that underlie chloroplast movements have been revealed through analysis of the behavior of individual chloroplasts and it has been found that these organelles can move in any direction without turning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn green plants, the blue light receptor kinase phototropin mediates various photomovements and developmental responses, such as phototropism, chloroplast photorelocation movements (accumulation and avoidance), stomatal opening, and leaf flattening, which facilitate photosynthesis. In Arabidopsis, two phototropins (phot1 and phot2) redundantly mediate these responses. Two phototropin-interacting proteins, NONPHOTOTROPIC HYPOCOTYL 3 (NPH3) and ROOT PHOTOTROPISM 2 (RPT2), which belong to the NPH3/RPT2-like (NRL) family of BTB (broad complex, tramtrack, and bric à brac) domain proteins, mediate phototropism and leaf flattening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroplast photorelocation movement is an essential physiological response for sessile plant survival and the optimization of photosynthetic ability. Simple but effective experiments on the physiological, cell biological and molecular genetic aspects have been widely used to investigate the signaling components of chloroplast photorelocation movement in Arabidopsis for the past few decades. Although recent knowledge on chloroplast photorelocation movement has led us to a deeper understanding of its physiological and molecular basis, the biochemical roles of the downstream factors remain largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Physiol
January 2016
Plants and animals express multiple actin isoforms in a manner that is dependent on tissues, organs and the stage of development. Previous genetic analyses suggested that individual actin isoforms have specific roles in cells, but there is little biochemical evidence to support this hypothesis. In this study, we purified four recombinant Arabidopsis actin isoforms, two major vegetative actin isoforms, ACT2 and ACT7, and two major reproductive isoforms, ACT1 and ACT11, and characterized them biochemically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganelle movement and positioning play important roles in fundamental cellular activities and adaptive responses to environmental stress in plants. To optimize photosynthetic light utilization, chloroplasts move toward weak blue light (the accumulation response) and escape from strong blue light (the avoidance response). Nuclei also move in response to strong blue light by utilizing the light-induced movement of attached plastids in leaf cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhototropins are blue-light-sensitive photoreceptor proteins in plants. Phototropins consist of two LOV (light, oxygen, and voltage sensor) domains (LOV1 and LOV2) that undergo photochemical reactions. Although the photochemical reaction of the LOV2 domain has been investigated extensively, the reaction of the LOV1 domain remains unresolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNuclear movement and positioning are indispensable for most cellular functions. In plants, strong light-induced chloroplast movement to the side walls of the cell is essential for minimizing damage from strong visible light. Strong light-induced nuclear movement to the side walls also has been suggested to play an important role in minimizing damage from strong UV light.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochim Biophys Acta
April 2014
Plants are photosynthetic organisms that have evolved unique systems to adapt fluctuating environmental light conditions. In addition to well-known movement responses such as phototropism, stomatal opening, and nastic leaf movements, chloroplast photorelocation movement is one of the essential cellular responses to optimize photosynthetic ability and avoid photodamage. For these adaptations, chloroplasts accumulate at the areas of cells illuminated with low light (called accumulation response), while they scatter from the area illuminated with strong light (called avoidance response).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants evolved photoprotective mechanisms in order to counteract the damaging effects of excess light in oxygenic environments. Among them, chloroplast avoidance and non-photochemical quenching concur in reducing the concentration of chlorophyll excited states in the photosynthetic apparatus to avoid photooxidation. We evaluated their relative importance in regulating excitation pressure on photosystem II.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhototropins (phot1 and phot2 in Arabidopsis thaliana) relay blue light intensity information to the chloroplasts, which move toward weak light (the accumulation response) and away from strong light (the avoidance response). Chloroplast-actin (cp-actin) filaments are vital for mediating these chloroplast photorelocation movements. In this report, we examine in detail the cp-actin filament dynamics by which the chloroplast avoidance response is regulated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPremise Of Study: Phototropins (phot) are blue light receptor proteins that mediate phototropism and control photomovement responses, such as chloroplast photorelocation movement and stomatal opening. Arabidopsis thaliana has two phototropins, phot1 and phot2. Although both phot1 and phot2 redundantly mediate photomovement responses, phot2 uniquely regulates phototropism and the chloroplast avoidance response under high-intensity blue light.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroplasts change their position to adapt cellular activities to fluctuating environmental light conditions. Phototropins (phot1 and phot2 in Arabidopsis) are plant-specific blue light photoreceptors that perceive changes in light intensity and direction, and mediate actin-based chloroplast photorelocation movements. Both phot1 and phot2 regulate the chloroplast accumulation response, while phot2 is mostly responsible for the regulation of the avoidance response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhototropins (phot1 and phot2), plant-specific blue light receptor kinases, mediate a range of physiological responses in Arabidopsis, including phototropism, chloroplast photorelocation movement, stomatal opening and leaf flattening. Phototropins consist of two photoreceptive domains at their N-terminus, LOV1 (light, oxygen or voltage 1) and LOV2, and a serine/threonine kinase domain at their C-terminus. Here, we determined the molecular moiety for the membrane association of phototropins using the yeast CytoTrap and Arabidopsis protoplast systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants monitor the light environment through informational photoreceptors that include phytochromes. In seedling de-etiolation, phytochrome B (phyB), which is the most important member of the phytochrome family, interacts with transcription factors to regulate gene expression and transduce light signals. In this study, we identified rrc1 (reduced red-light responses in cry1cry2 background 1), an Arabidopsis mutant that is impaired in phyB-mediated light responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant Cell Physiol
December 2011
Phytochrome B (phyB) is the major informational photoreceptor in light-grown plants. The phyB polypeptide is folded into two domains, the N-terminal domain and the C-terminal domain. The N-terminal domain covalently binds to the chromophore via a particular cysteine residue, which allows the holoprotein to absorb light and undergo a photoreversible conformational change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLight is an important environmental information source that plants use to modify their growth and development. Palisade parenchyma cells in leaves develop cylindrical shapes in response to blue light; however, the photosensory mechanism for this response has not been elucidated. In this study, we analyzed the palisade cell response in phototropin-deficient mutants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroplast photorelocation movement is essential for the sessile plant survival and plays a role for efficient photosynthesis and avoiding photodamage of chloroplasts. There are several ways to observe or detect chloroplast movement directly or indirectly. Here, techniques for the induction of chloroplast movement and how to detect the responses, as well as various points of attention and advice for the experiments, are described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Plant
September 2011
Chloroplast movement is essential for plants to survive under various environmental light conditions. Phototropins-plant-specific blue-light-activated receptor kinases-mediate the response by perceiving light intensity and direction. Recently, novel chloroplast actin (cp-actin) filaments have been identified as playing a pivotal role in the directional chloroplast photorelocation movement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroplasts move toward weak light (accumulation response) and away from strong light (avoidance response). The fast and accurate movement of chloroplasts in response to ambient light conditions is essential for efficient photosynthesis and photodamage prevention in chloroplasts. Here, we report that two Arabidopsis mutants, weak chloroplast movement under blue light 1 (web1) and web2, are defective in both the avoidance and the accumulation responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChloroplasts change their intracellular distribution in response to light intensity. Previously, we isolated the chloroplast unusual positioning1 (chup1) mutant of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). This mutant is defective in normal chloroplast relocation movement and shows aggregation of chloroplasts at the bottom of palisade mesophyll cells.
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