Decoding of Light Signals by Plant Phvtochromes and Their Interacting Proteins

摘要

Phytochromes are red/far-red light photoreceptors that convert theinformation contained in external light into biological signals. Thedecoding process starts with the perception of red light, which occursthrough photoisomerization of a chromophore located within thephytochrome, leading to structural changes that include the disrup-tion of intramolecular interactions between the N- and C-terminaldomains of the phytochrome. This disruption exposes surfaces re-quired for interactions with other proteins. In contrast, the percep-tion of far-red light reverses the photoisomerization, restores theintramolecular interaction, and closes the interacting surfaces. Lightinformation represented by the concentration of opened interactingsurfaces is converted into biological signals through the modulat-ing activity of interacting proteins. This review summarizes plantphytochromes, phytochrome-interacting proteins, and signal trans-mission from phytochromes to their interacting proteins.