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Regulation of Arabidopsis cryptochrome 2 by blue-light-dependent phosphorylation

Nature volume 417, pages 763–767 (2002)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 25 July 2002

Abstract

Cryptochromes are blue/ultraviolet-A light receptors that mediate various light responses in plants and animals1,2. But the initial photochemical reaction of cryptochrome is still unclear. For example, although most photoreceptors are known to undergo light-dependent protein modification such as phosphorylation3,4, no blue-light dependent phosphorylation has been reported for a cryptochrome. Arabidopsis cryptochrome 2 (cry2) mediates light regulation of seedling development and photoperiodic flowering5,6. The physiological activity and cellular level of cry2 protein are light-dependent5,6,7,8, and protein–protein interactions are important for cry2 function9,10. Here we report that cry2 undergoes a blue-light-dependent phosphorylation, and that cry2 phosphorylation is associated with its function and regulation. Our results suggest that, in the absence of light, cry2 remains unphosphorylated, inactive and stable; absorption of blue light induces the phosphorylation of cry2, triggering photomorphogenic responses and eventually degradation of the photoreceptor.

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Figure 1: Blue-light-dependent phosphorylation of Arabidopsis cry2.
Figure 2: Kinetics analyses of light-dependent cry2 phosphorylation.
Figure 3: Accumulation of phosphorylated cry2 and impairment of cry2 turnover in cop1 mutants in response to blue light.
Figure 4: The lack of effect of red light or phytochrome mutations on cry2 phosphorylation.
Figure 5: Constitutive phosphorylation of the CRY2 C-terminal domain moiety (CCT2) of the GUS–CCT2 fusion protein.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Cashmore, X.-W. Deng, J. Chory and T. Kretsch for providing Arabidopsis mutant lines. This work is supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and UCLA-FGP. T.C.M. is supported by a predoctoral UCLA-NSF/IGERT training award.

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  1. Hongwei Guo

    Present address: Genomic Analysis Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California, 92037, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA

    Dror Shalitin, Hongyun Yang, Todd C. Mockler, Maskit Maymon & Chentao Lin

  2. Biology Department, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    Garry C. Whitelam

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Correspondence to Chentao Lin.

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Shalitin, D., Yang, H., Mockler, T. et al. Regulation of Arabidopsis cryptochrome 2 by blue-light-dependent phosphorylation. Nature 417, 763–767 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00815

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