Phytochrome A: functional diversity and polymorphism

Abstract

Phytochrome (phy), a 124 kDa biliprotein, mediates plants’ perception of environmental light conditions including quantity, quality and duration of light. The complex phenomenology of phy function is connected with its polymorphism, the major phys being phyA and phyB. PhyA mediates irreversible photoresponses in the very low and high fluence ranges (VLFR and HIR) primarily in the far-red (FR) spectral region, whereas phyB mediates the ‘classical’ R/FR reversible responses in the low fluence range (LFR). This phyA specificity is determined at the level of (i) intramolecular events, (ii) turnover, phyA being light-labile, and (iii) nuclear–cytoplasmic partitioning and interaction with partner proteins. A unique feature of phyA is that two native isoforms, phyA′ and phyA″, comprise it, distinguished by spectroscopic and photochemical properties, localization and abundance in plant tissues, light stability, and other properties. They differ by the post-translational modification at the 6 kDa N-terminus, possibly phosphorylation, phyA′ being phosphorylated and phyA″ dephosphorylated. Both species participate in the light-induced nuclear–cytoplasmic partitioning. The light-labile phyA′ is responsible for de-etiolation (VLFR and HIR modes), whereas the relatively more light-stable phyA″ could be active throughout the whole life cycle. PhyA″ interferes with the action of phyA′ and this interaction may be part of the fine tuning mechanism of the phyA function. Finally, within the phyA′ pool there are different conformers in thermal equilibrium, that differ by the activation and kinetic parameters of the Pr → lumi-R photoreaction. This heterogeneity of phyA may account, at least partially, for the complex dynamics of its photoprocesses and the phenomenology of photoresponses.