Skip to main content
PMC home page
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1996 Mar;110(3):731–742. doi: 10.1104/pp.110.3.731

A complement of ten essential and pleiotropic arabidopsis COP/DET/FUS genes is necessary for repression of photomorphogenesis in darkness.

S F Kwok 1, B Piekos 1, S Misera 1, X W Deng 1
PMCID: PMC157771  PMID: 8819865

Abstract

Two genetic screens, one for mutations resulting in photomorphogenic development in darkness and the other for mutants with fusca phenotype, have thus far identified six pleiotropic Arabidopsis COP/DET/FUS genes. Here, we characterized representative mutants that define four additional pleiotropic photomorphogenic loci and a null mutant allele of the previously defined DET1 locus. Dark-grown seedlings homozygous for these recessive mutations exhibit short hypocotyls and expanded cotyledons and are lethal before reaching reproductive development. Dark-grown mutant seedlings also display characteristic photomorphogenic cellular differentiation and elevated expression of light-inducible genes. In addition, analyses of plastids from dark-grown mutants reveal partial chloroplast differentiation and absence of etioplast development. Root vascular bundle cells of light-grown mutant seedlings develop chloroplasts, suggesting that these FUS gene products are important for suppression of chloroplast differentiation in light-grown roots. Double-mutant analyses indicate that these pleiotropic cop/det/fus mutations are epistatic to mutations in phytochromes, a blue-light photoreceptor, and a downstream regulatory component, HY5. Therefore, there is a complement of at least 10 essential and pleiotropic Arabidopsis genes that are necessary for repression of photomorphogenic development.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (3.6 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ang L. H., Deng X. W. Regulatory hierarchy of photomorphogenic loci: allele-specific and light-dependent interaction between the HY5 and COP1 loci. Plant Cell. 1994 May;6(5):613–628. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.5.613. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bowler C., Chua N. H. Emerging themes of plant signal transduction. Plant Cell. 1994 Nov;6(11):1529–1541. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.11.1529. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chory J. Out of darkness: mutants reveal pathways controlling light-regulated development in plants. Trends Genet. 1993 May;9(5):167–172. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(93)90163-c. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chory J., Peto C. A. Mutations in the DET1 gene affect cell-type-specific expression of light-regulated genes and chloroplast development in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Nov;87(22):8776–8780. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.22.8776. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chory J., Peto C., Feinbaum R., Pratt L., Ausubel F. Arabidopsis thaliana mutant that develops as a light-grown plant in the absence of light. Cell. 1989 Sep 8;58(5):991–999. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90950-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Deng X. W., Caspar T., Quail P. H. cop1: a regulatory locus involved in light-controlled development and gene expression in Arabidopsis. Genes Dev. 1991 Jul;5(7):1172–1182. doi: 10.1101/gad.5.7.1172. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Deng X. W. Fresh view of light signal transduction in plants. Cell. 1994 Feb 11;76(3):423–426. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90107-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Deng X. W., Matsui M., Wei N., Wagner D., Chu A. M., Feldmann K. A., Quail P. H. COP1, an Arabidopsis regulatory gene, encodes a protein with both a zinc-binding motif and a G beta homologous domain. Cell. 1992 Nov 27;71(5):791–801. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(92)90555-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hou Y., Von Arnim A. G., Deng X. W. A New Class of Arabidopsis Constitutive Photomorphogenic Genes Involved in Regulating Cotyledon Development. Plant Cell. 1993 Mar;5(3):329–339. doi: 10.1105/tpc.5.3.329. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. McNellis T. W., Deng X. W. Light control of seedling morphogenetic pattern. Plant Cell. 1995 Nov;7(11):1749–1761. doi: 10.1105/tpc.7.11.1749. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. McNellis T. W., von Arnim A. G., Araki T., Komeda Y., Miséra S., Deng X. W. Genetic and molecular analysis of an allelic series of cop1 mutants suggests functional roles for the multiple protein domains. Plant Cell. 1994 Apr;6(4):487–500. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.4.487. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. McNellis T. W., von Arnim A. G., Araki T., Komeda Y., Miséra S., Deng X. W. Genetic and molecular analysis of an allelic series of cop1 mutants suggests functional roles for the multiple protein domains. Plant Cell. 1994 Apr;6(4):487–500. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.4.487. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Miséra S., Müller A. J., Weiland-Heidecker U., Jürgens G. The FUSCA genes of Arabidopsis: negative regulators of light responses. Mol Gen Genet. 1994 Aug 2;244(3):242–252. doi: 10.1007/BF00285451. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pepper A., Delaney T., Washburn T., Poole D., Chory J. DET1, a negative regulator of light-mediated development and gene expression in arabidopsis, encodes a novel nuclear-localized protein. Cell. 1994 Jul 15;78(1):109–116. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90577-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Quail P. H. Photosensory perception and signal transduction in plants. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 1994 Oct;4(5):652–661. doi: 10.1016/0959-437x(94)90131-l. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wei N., Chamovitz D. A., Deng X. W. Arabidopsis COP9 is a component of a novel signaling complex mediating light control of development. Cell. 1994 Jul 15;78(1):117–124. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90578-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wei N., Deng X. W. COP9: a new genetic locus involved in light-regulated development and gene expression in arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 1992 Dec;4(12):1507–1518. doi: 10.1105/tpc.4.12.1507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Wei N., Kwok S. F., von Arnim A. G., Lee A., McNellis T. W., Piekos B., Deng X. W. Arabidopsis COP8, COP10, and COP11 genes are involved in repression of photomorphogenic development in darkness. Plant Cell. 1994 May;6(5):629–643. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.5.629. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Whitelam G. C., Johnson E., Peng J., Carol P., Anderson M. L., Cowl J. S., Harberd N. P. Phytochrome A null mutants of Arabidopsis display a wild-type phenotype in white light. Plant Cell. 1993 Jul;5(7):757–768. doi: 10.1105/tpc.5.7.757. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. von Arnim A. G., Deng X. W. Light inactivation of Arabidopsis photomorphogenic repressor COP1 involves a cell-specific regulation of its nucleocytoplasmic partitioning. Cell. 1994 Dec 16;79(6):1035–1045. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90034-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES