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Mol. Cells 2013; 35(5): 371-380

Published online May 16, 2013

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10059-013-0135-5

© The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology

Phytochrome-Interacting Factors Have Both Shared and Distinct Biological Roles

Jinkil Jeong, and Giltsu Choi

Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Korea

Received: April 30, 2013; Accepted: May 3, 2013

Abstract

Phytochromes are plant photoreceptors that perceive red and far-red light. Upon the perception of light in Arabidopsis, light-activated phytochromes enter the nucleus and act on a set of interacting proteins, modulating their activities and thereby altering the expression levels of ~10% of the organism’s entire gene complement. Phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs) belonging to Arabidopsis basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) subgroup 15 are key interacting proteins that play negative roles in light responses. Their activities are post-translationally countered by light-acti-vated phytochromes, which promote the degradation of PIFs and directly or indirectly inhibit their binding to DNA. The PIFs share a high degree of similarity, but examinations of pif single and multiple mutants have indicated that they have shared and distinct functions in various devel-opmental and physiological processes. These are believed to stem from differences in both intrinsic protein properties and their gene expression patterns. In an effort to clarify the basis of these shared and distinct functions, we compared recently published genome-wide ChIP data, developmental gene expression maps, and responses to various stimuli for the various PIFs. Based on our observations, we propose that the biological roles of PIFs stem from their shared and distinct DNA binding targets and specific gene expression patterns.

Keywords bHLH transcription factor, gene expression analysis, light signaling, phytochrome, phytochrome-interacting factor

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Mol. Cells 2013; 35(5): 371-380

Published online May 31, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10059-013-0135-5

Copyright © The Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Phytochrome-Interacting Factors Have Both Shared and Distinct Biological Roles

Jinkil Jeong, and Giltsu Choi

Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Korea

Received: April 30, 2013; Accepted: May 3, 2013

Abstract

Phytochromes are plant photoreceptors that perceive red and far-red light. Upon the perception of light in Arabidopsis, light-activated phytochromes enter the nucleus and act on a set of interacting proteins, modulating their activities and thereby altering the expression levels of ~10% of the organism’s entire gene complement. Phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs) belonging to Arabidopsis basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) subgroup 15 are key interacting proteins that play negative roles in light responses. Their activities are post-translationally countered by light-acti-vated phytochromes, which promote the degradation of PIFs and directly or indirectly inhibit their binding to DNA. The PIFs share a high degree of similarity, but examinations of pif single and multiple mutants have indicated that they have shared and distinct functions in various devel-opmental and physiological processes. These are believed to stem from differences in both intrinsic protein properties and their gene expression patterns. In an effort to clarify the basis of these shared and distinct functions, we compared recently published genome-wide ChIP data, developmental gene expression maps, and responses to various stimuli for the various PIFs. Based on our observations, we propose that the biological roles of PIFs stem from their shared and distinct DNA binding targets and specific gene expression patterns.

Keywords: bHLH transcription factor, gene expression analysis, light signaling, phytochrome, phytochrome-interacting factor

Mol. Cells
Mar 31, 2023 Vol.46 No.3, pp. 131~189
COVER PICTURE
The physiologically important cytoprotective signaling in normal cells (background area in turquoise) mediated by NRF2 (blue chain) is often hijacked by cancer cells (red ball) in the tumor microenvironment (yellow area). However, the differential roles of NRF2 throughout the multistage carcinogenesis remains largely unresolved (white-colored overlapping misty areas).

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