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mRNA Interactome Capture from Plant Protoplasts
Published on: July 28, 2017
Q&A: How do plants sense and respond to UV-B radiation?
1Department of Botany and Plant Biology, University of Geneva, Sciences III, CH-1211, Geneva, 4, Switzerland. roman.ulm@unige.ch.
Abstract:
Plants are able to sense UV-B through the UV-B photoreceptor UVR8. UV-B photon absorption by a UVR8 homodimer leads to UVR8 monomerization and interaction with the downstream signaling factor COP1. This then initiates changes in gene expression, which lead to several metabolic and morphological alterations. A major response is the activation of mechanisms associated with UV-B acclimation and UV-B tolerance, including biosynthesis of sunscreen metabolites, antioxidants and DNA repair enzymes. To balance the response, UVR8 is inactivated by regulated re-dimerization. Apart from their importance for plants, UVR8 and its interacting protein COP1 have already proved useful for the optogenetic toolkit used to engineer synthetic light-dependent responses.
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