Light control of nuclear gene mRNA abundance and translation in tobacco

Photosynthetic signals modulate expression of nuclear genes at the levels of mRNA transcription, mRNA stability, and translation. In transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), the pea (Pisum sativum) Ferredoxin 1 (Fed-1) mRNA dissociates from polyribosomes and becomes destabilized when photosynthesis is inhibited by photosynthetic electron transport inhibitor 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea. We used polymerase chain reaction suppressive-subtractive hybridization to identify similarly regulated endogenous tobacco genes. This screen identified 14 nuclear-encoded tobacco mRNAs whose light-induced increase in abundance is suppressed in the presence of 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea. Sequence analysis of the cognate cDNAs revealed that nine of the mRNAs encode putative chloroplast-targeted proteins. We asked whether the abundance of these mRNAs was regulated transcriptionally or posttranscriptionally. Of the five mRNAs with sufficient abundance to detect using nuclear run-on assays, we observed transcriptional regulation of alpha-tubulin, thiazole biosynthetic enzyme, and pSKA10 (an unknown gene). Photosystem A subunit L and, to a lesser extent, alpha-tubulin and pSKA10 mRNAs, may also be stabilized in the light. In contrast, Rubisco small subunit mRNA abundance appears to be transcriptionally up-regulated but posttranscriptionally down-regulated in the light. To determine whether, like Fed-1 mRNA, the mRNAs identified in this screen were translationally responsive to light, we characterized the polyribosome association of these mRNAs in the light and after a 15-min dark treatment. A subset of the mRNAs showed dramatic dark-induced polyribosome dissociation, similar to Fed-1 mRNA, and all of the mRNAs showed at least slight polyribosome dissociation. Thus, both posttranscriptional and translational regulation appear to be important mechanisms regulating the expression of many nuclear-encoded mRNAs encoding proteins involved in photosynthesis.