Abstract
Blue light is an important environmental factor for plant life. Vaucheria, a coenocytic alga, shows several blue light responses such as positive or negative phototropism, light-growth-response, and branch induction.
Two putative photoreceptors for blue light-induced photomorphogenesis were isolated and designated as AUREOCHROME1 (AUREO1) and AUREOCHROME2 (AUREO2). Each of these proteins has one bZip and one LOV domain. LOV domains are known to absorb blue light through flavin, whereas bZip domains are known to bind specific DNA sequences and function as transcription factors. We determined the specific DNA sequence that could bind AUREO1 by random oligonucleotide binding selection assay. Furthermore, we confirmed the DNA-binding specificity of AUREO1 by gel-shift assay. However, the effect of blue light on the DNA-binding activity of AUREO1 has not been analyzed.
We will present our recent results of the effect of blue light on the DNA-binding activity of AUREO1.
