Molecular adaptations to light during the water-to-land transition using the moss Physcomitrium patens and the charophyte alga Mesotaenium endlicherianum

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Upon the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life, green organisms were challenged by vastly altered ambient light conditions, including an increase in the intensity of light, an increase in the fluctuation of light intensity, a change in the light spectrum and eventually also canopy shade. Moreover, the newly evolved plant complexity and sessile life style necessitated that light perception be interconnected with endogenous developmental programs to allow light-adapted growth and development. We will therefore study light signaling and light responses in the moss Physcomitrium patens and in the charophyte alga Mesotaenium endlicherianum, thereby focusing on photoprotection towards high light stress, photomorphogenesis and chloroplast development. We will study two transcription factors that interact with the COP1/SPA E3 ubiquitin ligase in P. patens and M. endlicherianum in order to identify innovations in the regulation of chloroplast development, photomorphogenesis, photoprotection and light-regulated gene expression networks that may have predated plant terrestrialization.