How do plants see "light"?

Typically, animals use their eyes to perceive light and convert it into electrical impulses to the brain to explain what they see. Although plants do not have eyes, they can "see" light, and even "see" light that the human eye cannot see, perceive the intensity and color of light, and respond to different light cycles.
recently, Deng Sheng, a professor at Peking University's School of Modern Agriculture, published a review article online in Plant Newsletter, which systematically summarizes the progress of the research on COP1, the "star gene" in the plant light signal regulation network, over the past 30 years.not only provides energy for plant growth, but also regulates the various stages of plant growth and development as an important environmental signaling factor.
as early as 1880, Darwin's father and son carried out a series of experiments using plant seedlings with the most obvious manifestations of lulithability, and recorded the lighting of plants in detail in The Movement of Plants. For more than a hundred years, botanists have been exploring the light subjects, light cycle reactions, signaling processes, and so on.
in light, the seedlings of plants develop morphological features suitable for photosynthemum, open leaves rich in chlorophytes, and shorten the lower embryo shaft as much as possible, a developmental pattern that is the plant's "light form."
And in the dark, it minimizes wear and tear, with yellow-white leaves, smaller, hook-shaped bends at the top, and stems that are thin and long, presenting a bean sprout-like pattern, a developmental pattern known as "dark form construction".
the early summer of 1989 to the end of 1991, during Deng's postdoctoral work, deng found and identified a class of plant mutants that, even in the dark, still grew in the same form as those in the light. Accordingly, he was named COP1 factor. In 1992, in his first year at Yale University, he successfully cloned COP1, the first cloned light form to be built into a core regulatory factor.
past 30 years, COP1's optical signal regulation network has been extensively and deeply studied in the model plant athropomorth.
"COP1 is not a plant-specific regulatory factor, it has very conservative biochemical functions and sequence characteristics, widely found in the ethonalmical organisms (plants, animals, fungi). Han Xue, the first author of this paper and a doctoral student at Peking University's School of Modern Agriculture, introduced it.
" after the plant COP1 was cloned, the study of mammalian COP1 has also become a hot topic of concern. Unlike plants, COP1 in mammals is widely involved in cancer occurrence, glycolipid metabolism, development and so on. She said."Our 30 years of research can probably be divided into two phases, before 2000, mainly to explore what protein state COP1 exists in, when it is regulated with which factors make up the complex and so on." "After 2000, while continuing previous studies, functional studies based on COP1 bio-chemical activity were conducted. " Deng said.
In 2000, a study published in Nature by Deng Sheng and others revealed that COP1 itself is an E3 ubiganic connective enzyme with conservative bio-chemical characteristics in both animals and plants, which regulates the development of light morphology by degrading important photogenic proteins such as HY5.
" this is a milestone in the study, we understand a very important light-regulating protein in plants of its own bio-chemical activity, for later research on how it is regulated and regulated, with a clear direction. Deng said.
seedlings unearthed is a typical phenomenon of this regulatory process. Han Xue introduced, when the seeds just germinated, in the dark, when the start of dark form to build development mode, COP1 played a leading role. At the same time, due to the soil cover, seedlings are under great mechanical pressure, these pressures will stimulate the secretion of ethylene hormones, so that it appears yellowing, top hook production.
is about to be unearthed, the soil gap will be a small light, then COP1 factor activity will be reduced, ethylene secretion will be reduced. After unearthing, COP1 and ethylene pathact activity is very weak, HY5 factor played a leading role.
" the adjustment process is very fine, the seeds clearly know when to penetrate the soil, COP1 like a precise ruler, at any time to measure how far the seeds from the soil surface. "
understand this, you can choose according to the activity of COP1, so that the crop germination rate is higher, more neatly unearthed." In order to improve germination rate, often a hole a variety, can now be a hole one, for later cultivation to save a lot of trouble. Dengsaid that the function of COP1, the mode of regulation has a certain understanding, the entire regulatory framework has a certain degree of certain grasp, but many of the deep-seated things are still unclear.
"We have now discovered its role in the construction of light forms, and it may also play a role in other growth processes. How does the whole body control the role of a gene in different environments and processes? The rationale and details are unclear. With the development of technical conditions, will continue to bring new breakthroughs. He said.
in the future, he said, he hopes to study the space-time regulatory relationship of COP1, "with changes in time, lighting conditions, etc., how the position of COP1 in plant cells and bio-chemical activity changes, what is the dynamic process of this regulation." "
" as plants recognize light and transmit signals, the study will be more refined in breeding and planting. For example, we can control the length of lighting, cycle, sowing spacing, improve the quality and character of different crops, to meet the richer, personalized needs of consumers. He said.
Lin Rongsheng, a researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the China Science Journal that light signal transducation is one of the most active areas of plant biology research in the past 40 years, thanks in large part to the discovery of the COP1 gene and its function and mechanism.
" COP1 work is a classic, it is one of the few genes found in plants and then in animals and confirmed to have important functions, driving the life science protein fate decision research. Lin Rongsheng said.
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