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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Plant Gene Expression Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #108008
Title: THE FAR1 LOCUS ENCODES A NOVEL NUCLEAR PROTEIN SPECIFIC TO PHYTOCHROME A SIGNALLING

Author
item QUAIL, PETER - ARS-UCB PLNT GENE EXP CTR
item HUDSON, M. - ARS-UCB PLNT GENE EXP CTR
item RINGLI, C. - ARS-UCB PLNT GENE EXP CTR
item BOYLAN, M. - ARS-UCB PLNT GENE EXP CTR

Submitted to: Genes and Development
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/5/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: Quail, P.H., Hudson, M., Ringli, C., Boylan, M.T. 1999. The far1 locus encodes a novel nuclear protein specific to phytochrome a signalling. Genes and Development 13:2017-2027.

Interpretive Summary: We describe a new Arabidopsis mutant, far1 (far-red-impaired response), which has reduced responsiveness to continuous far-red light, but responds normally to other light wavelengths.

Technical Abstract: The phytochrome family of photoreceptors has a well-defined role in regulating gene expression in response to informational light signals. Little is known, however, of the early steps of phytochrome signal transduction. Here we describe a new Arabidopsis mutant, far1 (far-red-impaired response), which has reduced responsiveness to continuous sfar-red light, but responds normally to other light wavelengths. This phenotype implies a specific requirement for FAR1 in phyA signal transduction. The far1 locus maps to the south arm of chromosome 4, and is not allelic to photomorphogenic loci identified previously. All five far1 alleles isolated have single nucleotide substitutions that introduce stop codons in a single ORF. The FAR1 gene encodes a protein with no significant sequence similarity to any proteins of known function. The FAR1 protein contains a predicted nuclear localization signal and is targeted to the nucleus in transient transfection assays. This result supports an emerging view that early steps in phytochrome signaling may be centered in the nucleus. The FAR1 gene defines a new multigene family, which consists of at least four genes in Arabidopsis. This observation raises the possibility of redundancy in the phyA-signaling pathway, which could account for the incomplete block of phyA signaling observed in the far1 mutant.