Phytochrome-Mediated Light Regulation of PHYA- and PHYB-GUS Transgenes in Arabidopsis thaliana Seedlings

Phytochrome wild-type gene-[beta]-glucuronidase (PHY-GUS) gene fusions were used in transgenic Arabidopsis to compare the activity levels and light regulation of the PHYA and PHYB promoters and to identify the photoreceptors mediating this regulation. In dark-grown seedlings, both promoters are 4-fold more active in shoots than in roots,but the PHYA promoter is nearly 20-fold more active than that of PHYB in both organs. In shoots, white light represses the activities of the PHYA and PHYB promoters 10- and 2-fold, respectively, whereas in roots light has no effect on the PHYA promoter but increases PHYB promoter activity 2-fold. Consequently, PHYA promoter activity remains higher than that of PHYB in light in both shoots (5-fold) and roots (11-fold). Experiments with narrow-waveband light and photomorphogenic mutants suggest that no single photoreceptor is necessary for full white-light-directed PHYA repression in shoots, but that multiple, independent photoreceptor pathways are sufficient alone or in combination. In contrast, phytochrome B appears both necessary and sufficient for a light-mediated decrease in PHYB activity in shoots, and phytochrome A mediates a far-red-light-stimulated increase in PHYB promoter activity. Together, the data indicate that the PHYA and PHYB genes are regulated in divergent fashion at the transcriptional level, both developmentally and by the spectral distribution of the prevailing light, and that this regulation may be important to the photosensory function of the two photoreceptors.