Collaborative Research: An F-box protein targeting PIF1 and PIF3

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Light is one of the most important environmental factors influencing plant development, controlling seed germination, growth, greening, and many other plant developmental processes in addition to driving photosynthesis. A central question in plant science concerns how, at the cellular level, the plant responds to light? Certain proteins are known to act as light receptors while others act as inhibitors of light responses. In darkness these proteins are kept separate within the cell but, upon illumination, arrive at the same destination, the nucleus. The receptor proximity somehow destroys the inhibitor through the action of a third, previously unidentified, mediator protein. This research seeks to clarify the identity of the mediator and investigate how it influences the stability of the inhibitor. It is anticipated that isolating the inhibitor protein from plant cells engineered to possess greater than usual amounts of the inhibitor protein, and exposed to light, will simultaneously isolate the mediator protein due to their affinity for one another while the converse will also be true. These in vivo protein-protein interactions will be demonstrated using antibodies against both proteins. This interaction will also be visualized using fluorescently tagged inhibitor and mediator proteins that are visible only when the inhibitor and mediator proteins are in physical contact. Visible signal should be generated only following exposure of the plant cells to light and this signal should then attenuate over time as the inhibitor is destroyed. A post-doctoral collaborator will be supported by this award as they spearhead efforts to elucidate this facet of the plant response to light. A greater understanding of light perception at the cellular level should provide opportunities to engineer crop plants for faster germination, greater stand establishment in the field, and potentiate the alteration of plant stature and structure.