Translational activation mechanism of ribosome biogenesis-related genes at photoreception

January 20, 2023

Revealing a new mechanism of growth control in plants

The RIKEN CSRS demonstrated that both the normal signaling through blue light and the normal function of chloroplasts are required to activate the translation of genes relating to the biogenesis of ribosomes and other functions, a translation apparatus, in plants.

It has been known that the gene expression upon blue light reception is controlled at both transcription and translation levels. In contrast, how the changes in gene expression at the translational level are controlled remains to be understood.

In this study, the research team studied genome-wide gene expression changes of Arabidopsis thaliana mutant seedings with blue light receptor grown on normal plate, and wild-type seedings grown on plates containing a chloroplast function inhibitor. They discovered that genes related to ribosome biogenesis were not expressed in the seedlings of both the mutant with blue light receptor and the wild type grown under the chloroplast inhibitor, while they were expressed in the corresponding controls. This result demonstrated that both the normal signaling through blue light and the normal function of chloroplasts are required to control gene expression at the translation level in plants, suggesting that the reception of light is essential to activate the translation of the genes related to the biogenesis of ribosomes in plants.

These findings would lead to understanding new mechanisms to control plant growth.

Original article
Journal of Plant Research doi:10.1007/s10265-022-01430-8
C. Akagi, Y. Kurihara, Y. Makita, M. Kawauchi, T. Tsuge, T. Aoyama, M. Matsui,
"Translational activation of ribosome-related genes at initial photoreception is dependent on signals derived from both the nucleus and the chloroplasts in Arabidopsis thaliana".
Contact
Minami Matsui; Group Director
Yukio Kurihara; Visiting Scientist
Chika Akagi; Student Trainee
Synthetic Genomics Research Group