Fankhauser C
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Geneva, 30 quai E. Ansermet, Geneva 4, 1211, Switzerland.
Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2000 Dec;11(6):467-73. doi: 10.1006/scdb.2000.0201.
Many phytochrome responses in plants are induced by red light and inhibited by far-red light. To explain the biochemical basis of these observations, it was speculated that plant phytochromes are light-regulated enzymes more than 40 years ago. The search for such an enzymatic activity has a long and rather tumultuous history. Biochemical data in the late 1980s had suggested that oat phytochrome might be a light-regulated protein kinase. The topic was the subject of intense debate, but solid experimental data backing the kinase model has been published recently. Two lines of research played a key role in this finding: the production of biologically active highly purified recombinant phytochrome and the discovery of phytochromes in prokaryotes. This review discusses the key steps of this discovery, and suggests some hypotheses for the role of protein kinase activity in photomorphogenesis.
植物中的许多光敏色素反应由红光诱导，而被远红光抑制。为了解释这些观察结果的生化基础，早在40多年前就有人推测植物光敏色素是受光调节的酶。寻找这种酶活性的过程有着漫长且颇为波折的历史。20世纪80年代末的生化数据表明，燕麦光敏色素可能是一种受光调节的蛋白激酶。这个话题曾引发激烈争论，但最近已经发表了支持激酶模型的可靠实验数据。两项研究在这一发现中起到了关键作用：具有生物活性的高度纯化重组光敏色素的产生以及原核生物中光敏色素的发现。本综述讨论了这一发现的关键步骤，并对蛋白激酶活性在光形态建成中的作用提出了一些假说。
