Coordination of plastid and light signaling pathways upon development of arabidopsis leaves under various photoperiods

Abstract

Plants synchronize their cellular and physiological functions according to the photoperiod (the length of the light period) in the cycle of 24h. Photoperiod adjusts several traits in the plant life cycle, including flowering and senescence in annuals and seasonal growth cessation in perennials. Photoperiodic development is controlled by the coordinated action of photoreceptors and the circadian clock. During the past 10years, remarkable progress has been made in understanding the molecular mechanism of the circadian clock, especially with regard to the transition of Arabidopsis from the vegetative growth to the reproductive phase. Besides flowering photoperiod also modifies plant photosynthetic structures and traits. Light signals controlling biogenesis of chloroplasts and development of leaf photosynthetic structures are perceived both by photoreceptors and in chloroplasts. In this review, we provide evidence suggesting that the photoperiodic development of Arabidopsis leaves mimics the acclimation of plant to various light intensities. Furthermore, the chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signals that adjust acclimation to light intensity are proposed to contribute also to the signaling pathways that control photoperiodic acclimation of leaves. The Author 2011. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPB and IPPE, SIBS, CAS.2011This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3. 0), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © The Author 2011. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPB and IPPE, SIBS, CAS.