De-phosphorylation of bZIP59 by PP2A ensures appropriate shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis

Shade can trigger the shade avoidance syndrome (SAS) in shade-intolerant species, which cause exaggerated growth and affect crop yield. We report that Arabidopsis transcription factors bZIP59 negatively regulate SAS. To identify direct targets of bZIP59 at the genome-wide level, we performed ChIP-Seq using ProbZIP59::bZIP59-GFP/bzip59 transgenic plants under white light or transferred to shade conditions for 2 hours. Our results indicated shade light dramatically increased the DNA binding ability of bZIP59, and shade-enhanced binding of bZIP59 majorly located around transcriptional start site (TSS) of genes. Overall design: 7-day-old white-light-grown ProbZIP59::bZIP59-GFP/bzip59 seedlings were treated 2 hr shade before harvesting for DNA extraction.