Oral Presentation 18th International Congress on Photobiology 2024

Role of CRY2 condensates in controlling light-responsive gene expression in Arabidopsis (#44)

Xu Wang 1 , Chentao Lin 2 3
  1. Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Weifang, SHANDONG, China
  2. Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
  3. Basic Forestry and Plant Proteomics Research Center, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

Cryptochromes (CRYs) are blue light receptors that control many aspects of plant growth and development through regulating gene expressions. In 2000, a study reported an interesting reaction that Arabidopsis CRY2-RFP (Red Fluorescent Protein) fusion proteins formed nuclear speckles in response to blue light. Similar observation was later made with the endogenous Arabidopsis CRY2 proteins, indicating that light-induced aggregation is a native photo-response of CRY2 photoreceptors. We recently demonstrated that these CRY2 nuclear speckles were liquid protein condensates in nature that formed via light-dependent liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Accumulating evidence over the past few years reveals that CRY2 condensates may play important roles in mediating photo-regulation of gene expression at multiple levels, by co-condensing CRY2-interacting proteins. We previously showed that CRY2 interacted with the METTL3/14-type m6A RNA methyltransferase complex (or m6A writer complex) in vivo in a blue light-independent manner but assembled it into CRY2 condensates in response to blue light. The concentrating of m6A writer complexes in CRY2 condensates might facilitate m6A RNA methylation of transcripts encoding key circadian clock oscillator genes (such as CCA1) thus modulate circadian clock activities. In this talk, I will present more of our findings towards understanding how CRY2 condensates contribute to the light-dependent regulation of gene expression at the transcriptional and co-transcriptional levels eventually resulting in light-responsive growth of plants.