ATH1 Transcriptome profiling of dark grown photoreceptor mutants seedlings of Arabidopsis

Phytochromes mediate a profound developmental shift when dark-grown seedlings are exposed to light. Here we show that a subset of genes is up regulated in phytochrome B (phyB) mutants even before dark-grown seedlings are exposed to light. Most of these genes bear the RY cis motif, which is a binding site of the transcription factor ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3), and the phyB mutation also enhanced ABI3 expression. These changes in transcriptome have physiological consequences as seedlings of the abi3 mutant showed enhanced responses to pulses of far-red light, while ABI3 overexpressers exhibited the opposite pattern. Seedlings of the wild type derived from seeds germinated in full darkness showed enhanced expression of genes bearing the RY cis motif and reduced responses to far-red light. We propose that, via changes in ABI3 expression, light, perceived mainly by phyB in the seed, generates a downstream trans-developmental phase signal that pre-conditions the seedling to its most likely environment. Keywords: Arabidopsis, photoreceptors, light signal transduction, environmental responses We analysed the transcriptome profile in dark grown seedlings of the WT, phyA and phyB photoreceptor single mutans and the phyAphyB double mutant. All seedlings have the same treatment (3d grown in complete darkness). We have two samples for each genotype that represent two replicates in each case.