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Published on: February 26, 2016
Evolutionary aspects of plant photoreceptors
Fay-Wei Li1,2, Sarah Mathews3
1Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA. fl43@duke.edu.
Abstract:
Plant photoreceptors link environmental light cues with physiological responses, determining how individual plants complete their life cycles. Structural and functional evolution of photoreceptors has co-occurred as plants diversified and faced the challenge of new light environments, during the transition of plants to land and as substantial plant canopies evolved. Large-scale comparative sequencing projects allow us for the first time to document photoreceptor evolution in understudied clades, revealing some surprises. Here we review recent progress in evolutionary studies of three photoreceptor families: phytochromes, phototropins and neochromes.
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