PICKLE is a repressor in seedling de-etiolation pathway

Light plays a vital role in seedling de-etiolation during which it remarkably inhibits hypocotyl growth and promotes cotyledon opening and the synthesis of chlorophyll and anthocyanin. After light perception, photoreceptors act to repress two main branches of the light signaling, PIFs and COP1-HY5. We recently identified PKL/EPP1, a chromatin remodeling factor, as a new component in regulating light-mediated hypocotyl growth. In this study, we found that EPP1 acts additively with SPA1 to repress seedling de-etiolation. Moreover, the expression of EPP1 is downregulated specifically in the hypocotyl region of the cop1 mutant compared with that of the wild type. We further found that EPP1 drastically inhibits both the protein and transcript levels of HY5, but not vice versa, indicating that HY5 acts downstream of EPP1. We thus propose a model in which EPP1 defines a new repressor and mediates a distinct signaling pathway of photomorphogenesis.