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1: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Dec 4;104(49):19625-30. Epub 2007 Nov 14.
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AUREOCHROME, a photoreceptor required for photomorphogenesis in stramenopiles.

Takahashi F, Yamagata D, Ishikawa M, Fukamatsu Y, Ogura Y, Kasahara M, Kiyosue T, Kikuyama M, Wada M, Kataoka H.

Division of Biological Regulation and Photobiology, National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.

A blue light (BL) receptor was discovered in stramenopile algae Vaucheria frigida (Xanthophyceae) and Fucus distichus (Phaeophyceae). Two homologs were identified in Vaucheria; each has one basic region/leucine zipper (bZIP) domain and one light-oxygen-voltage (LOV)-sensing domain. We named these chromoproteins AUREOCHROMEs (AUREO1 and AUREO2). AUREO1 binds flavin mononucleotide via its LOV domain and forms a 390-nm-absorbing form, indicative of formation of a cysteinyl adduct to the C(4a) carbon of the flavin mononucleotide upon BL irradiation. The adduct decays to the ground state in approximately 5 min. Its bZIP domain binds the target sequence TGACGT. The AUREO1 target binding was strongly enhanced by BL treatment, implying that AUREO1 functions as a BL-regulated transcription factor. The function of AUREO1 as photoreceptor for BL-induced branching is elucidated through RNAi experiments. RNAi of AUREO2 unexpectedly induces sex organ primordia instead of branches, implicating AUREO2 as a subswitch to initiate development of a branch, but not a sex organ. AUREO sequences are also found in the genome of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana (Bacillariophyceae), but are not present in green plants. AUREOCHROME therefore represents a BL receptor in photosynthetic stramenopiles.

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PMID: 18003911 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2148339