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Phytochromes

Tripping the light fantastic

Nature volume 400, pages 710–713 (1999)Cite this article

Photosynthesis fuels life as we know it, so we should all be grateful that evolution has provided plants with sensory mechanisms that allow them to adapt precisely to sunlight. These signal-transducing photoreceptors tell the plant about the intensity, spectral quality, direction and periodic timing of solar radiation, setting off metabolic and developmental changes that optimize the photosynthetic absorption of photons. The most intensively researched photoreceptors are the five members of the phytochrome family (known as phytochromes A to E in the tiny weed Arabidopsis). Phytochromes are photochromic pigments — that is, they are photochemically converted from the biologically inactive Pr form to the active Pfr form by absorbing red photons. Conversely, Pfr can be converted back to Pr by absorbing far-red photons.

For more than 40 years, the Holy Grail of phytochrome research has been the molecular mechanism of Pfr action. Ni et al.1 now provide compelling data (on page 781of this issue) about an interaction between phytochrome B and its putative reaction partner, phytochrome-interacting factor-3 (PIF3). The authors also speculate on a short-cut mechanism that links phytochrome photoconversion to gene regulation. This work is the latest stage in a sustained attack on the mechanism of phytochrome action from the laboratory of Peter Quail. And it is the first demonstration of photoreversible binding of a phytochrome to its putative signalling partner in vitro.

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Figure 1: Main steps in phytochrome action.

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  1. the Department of Biology, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH, Leicester, UK

    Harry Smith

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  1. Harry Smith
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Smith, H. Tripping the light fantastic. Nature 400, 710–713 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/23354

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