Montgomery Beronda L, Lagarias J Clark
Dept of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
Trends Plant Sci. 2002 Aug;7(8):357-66. doi: 10.1016/s1360-1385(02)02304-x.
Phytochromes were long thought to have evolved in non-motile photosynthetic eukaryotes for adaptation to unfavorable light environments, but recent studies suggest that phytochromes evolved billions of years earlier from a tetrapyrrole sensor protein progenitor. These investigations have identified phytochromes and phytochrome-related proteins in photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria and purple bacteria), nonphotosynthetic eubacteria and fungi - an observation that has opened new avenues for investigating the origins, molecular evolution and biochemical functions of this ecologically important family of plant photoreceptors.
长期以来，人们一直认为植物色素是在不能移动的光合真核生物中进化而来，以适应不利的光照环境，但最近的研究表明，植物色素是在数十亿年前从一种四吡咯传感器蛋白祖先进化而来的。这些研究在光合细菌（蓝细菌和紫色细菌）、非光合真细菌和真菌中鉴定出了植物色素和植物色素相关蛋白——这一发现为研究这个对生态至关重要的植物光感受器家族的起源、分子进化和生化功能开辟了新途径。
