Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy of Plant Roots Growing on the Surface of a Gel
Published on: January 18, 2017
Seeing the Light: The Roles of Red- and Blue-Light Sensing in Plant Microbes
Gwyn A Beattie1, Bridget M Hatfield1, Haili Dong1
1Department of Plant Pathology & Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA;
Abstract:
Plants collect, concentrate, and conduct light throughout their tissues, thus enhancing light availability to their resident microbes. This review explores the role of photosensing in the biology of plant-associated bacteria and fungi, including the molecular mechanisms of red-light sensing by phytochromes and blue-light sensing by LOV (light-oxygen-voltage) domain proteins in these microbes. Bacteriophytochromes function as major drivers of the bacterial transcriptome and mediate light-regulated suppression of virulence, motility, and conjugation in some phytopathogens and light-regulated induction of the photosynthetic apparatus in a stem-nodulating symbiont. Bacterial LOV proteins also influence light-mediated changes in both symbiotic and pathogenic phenotypes. Although red-light sensing by fungal phytopathogens is poorly understood, fungal LOV proteins contribute to blue-light regulation of traits, including asexual development and virulence. Collectively, these studies highlight that plant microbes have evolved to exploit light cues and that light sensing is often coupled with sensing other environmental signals.
Related Concept Videos
Photoreceptors and Plant Responses to Light
Light as Energy
Photons
A photon is a discrete electromagnetic particle or bundle of energy. Photons are characterized by their frequency, wavelength, and amplitude, similar to the properties of a wave. Waves with higher frequencies transmit more energy and have shorter wavelengths than longer wavelengths that transmit...
Light Acquisition
The Wave Nature of Light
The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition
Focusing of Light in the Eye

