Light-Responsive Double B-Box Containing Transcription Factors Are Conserved in Physcomitrella patens

Abstract

In the model seed plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a sub-family of B-box containing transcriptional factors (BBXs), which is classified in the BBX-IV group based on the domain structure, contains two tandem B-box domains and plays crucial roles in early photomorphogenesis under the control of blue light receptors, cry1 and cry2. The results of an examination of light responsiveness of representative Physcomitrella BBX-IV genes and their heterologous expression in Arabidopsis suggested that the light signaling-related characteristics of the BBX-IV subfamily are evolutionarily conserved in a moss, which is a basal lineage of land plants.