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Convergence of light and chloroplast signals for de-etiolation through ABI4–HY5 and COP1

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16066 (2016) Cite this article

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Abstract

Seedling de-etiolation prepares plants to switch from heterotrophic to photoautotrophic growth, a transition essential for plant survival. This delicate de-etiolation process is precisely controlled by environmental and endogenous signals. Although intracellular plastid-derived retrograde signalling is essential for the de-etiolation process, the molecular nature of these retrograde signals remains elusive1–3. Here we show that chloroplast and light signals antagonistically fine-tune a suite of developmental and physiological responses associated with de-etiolation through a transcriptional module of ABA INSENSITIVE 4 (ABI4) and ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5). Moreover, ABI4 and HY5 antagonistically regulate the expression of CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC1 (COP1) and the subsequent greening process. In turn, ABI4 and HY5 are targeted for degradation by COP1 in the light and dark, respectively, to ensure a proper interplay of ABI4 and HY5 actions during seedling de-etiolation. Our study provides a new molecular mechanism for understanding how chloroplast signals converge with light signals to optimize early plant development.

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Figure 1: ABI4 and HY5 antagonistically regulate hypocotyl elongation and cell-expansion-related genes.
Figure 2: Increased levels of ROS and Pchlide in plastid signalling mutants.
Figure 3: ABI4 and HY5 antagonistically regulate COP1 expression and the subsequent greening process.
Figure 4: COP1 targets ABI4 for proteosomal degradation.

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Acknowledgements

The work in our laboratory was supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program (grant 2015CB150100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 31370273) and Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant KGZD-EW-T05. We thank Q. Xie for help in ubiquitination analysis.

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Author notes

  1. Xuwu Sun

    Present address: †Present address: Plant Molecular Biology (Botany), Department Biology I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 82152 Planegg, Germany.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photosynthesis Research Center, Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China

    Xiumei Xu, Wei Chi, Xuwu Sun, Peiqiang Feng, Hailong Guo, Jing Li, Rongcheng Lin, Congming Lu & Lixin Zhang

  2. Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Haiyang Wang

  3. Department Biology I, Plant Molecular Biology (Botany), Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 82152 Planegg, Germany

    Dario Leister

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Contributions

L.Z. conceived this project. X.X. performed the phenotypic analysis, yeast two-hybrid assay, ChIP, qRT–PCR and DNA-binding assay and, together with P.F., carried out the ubiquitination assay. H.G. and J.L. constructed the transgenic plants. W.C., X.S., R.L., C.L., H.W. and D.L. joined in the discussion and data analysis. X.X. and L.Z. designed all experiments, analysed data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lixin Zhang.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figs 1-11, Supplementary Table 2 and Supplementary References. (PDF 1403 kb)

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Supplementary Table 1 (XLSX 18022 kb)

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Xu, X., Chi, W., Sun, X. et al. Convergence of light and chloroplast signals for de-etiolation through ABI4–HY5 and COP1. Nature Plants 2, 16066 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.66

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