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Phytochrome chromophore‐deficient mutants
Author(s) -
TERRY M. J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
plant, cell and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 200
eISSN - 1365-3040
pISSN - 0140-7791
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3040.1997.d01-102.x
Subject(s) - chromophore , biliverdin , phytochrome , mutant , arabidopsis , biology , biochemistry , phenotype , chemistry , heme , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , enzyme , heme oxygenase , photochemistry , red light , botany
Phytochrome chromophore‐deficient mutants have been used as phytochrome‐deficient plants to study many aspects of plant development. However, there are still a number of important questions to be resolved concerning both the targets and the phenotypic consequences of these mutations. Recently, progress has been made in our understanding of the molecular basis of the chromophore deficiency in these mutants. Biochemical assays for the committed steps of chromophore synthesis have been developed and used to demonstrate that the pcd1 and yellow‐green‐2 mutants of pea and tomato, respectively, are unable to synthesize biliverdin IXα from heme while pcd2 and aurea are deficient in phytochromobilin synthase activity. This review focuses on how this information can be used to help understand the basis of other chromophore‐deficient mutants, such as the hy1 and hy2 mutants of Arabidopsis, and discusses how the phenotype of chromophore‐deficient mutants is related to lesions in the chromophore biosynthesis pathway.