In nature, sunlight is the main energy source for plants. It provides the ultimate source of biological energy, which is harvested by the photosynthetic organisms to sustain life. Besides being the critical energy source, light signal regulates various developmental processes throughout the whole life cycle of plants.
Previous studies from Professor Xing Wang Deng’s lab have been shown that B-box domain containing protein BBX21 promotes seed germination in response to ABA (Xu et al., 2014 PLoS Genetics), and acts as a positive factor of light signaling (Xu et al., 2016 PNAS). Combining with genetic and biochemical methods, Deng’s lab at SUSTech demonstrated that the second B-box domain in BBX21 is essential for its direct binding of T/G-box cis-element present in the HY5 promoter, regulating HY5 and HY5-controlled gene expression, and promoting photomorphogenesis.
Figure.1 B-box domain in BBX21 mediates photomorphogenesis
The article entitled “The B-box domain protein BBX21 promotes photomorphogenesis” was published in “Plant Physiology” journal online on December 19, 2017.
Dr. Dongqing Xu and Dr. Yan Jiang at Department of biology, SUSTech are the co-first authors; Professor Xing Wang Deng and Dr. Dongqing Xu are the co-corresponding authors. This study was done in collaboration with Dr. Jian Li at School of Advanced Agriculture Sciences, Peking University and Professor Magnus Holm at Gothenburg University, Sweden. The study was supported by SUSTech, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Peking University – Tsinghua Life Science Joint Center.
Link to the paper: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2017/12/19/pp.17.01305
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