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Article Addendum
Phototropin Receptor Kinase Activation by Blue Light
Matthew A. Jones and John M. Christie
volume 3 | issue 1
january 2008Pages: 44 - 46
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Phototropins (phot1 and phot2) are blue light-activated serine/threonine protein kinases that function to mediate a variety of adaptive processes that serve to optimize the photosynthetic efficiency of plants and thereby promote their growth. Light sensing by the phototropins is mediated by a repeated motif located within the N-terminal region of the protein designated the LOV domain. Although phototropins possess two LOV photosensors (LOV1 and LOV2), recent biophysical and structure-function analyses clearly indicate that the LOV2 domain plays a predominant role in regulating phototropin kinase activity owing to specific protein changes that occur in response to LOV2 photoexcitation. In particular, the central β-sheet scaffold plays a role in propagating the photochemical signal generated from within LOV2 to protein changes at the surface that are necessary for kinase activation.
Authors
Matthew A. Jones
Plant Science Group, Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom
John M. Christie
Plant Science Group, Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom