CRYPTOCHROME
To sense the ambient light, plants evolved several classes of photoreceptors. These
photoreceptors exist in almost every cell of the plant, allowing these cells to individually sense
and respond to light. In addition, photoreceptors induce systemic signals that allow
communication across cells and tissues to coordinate the growth and development of the entire
plant. Photoreceptors enable plants to sense multiple pieces of information beyond the intensity
of light, that is color, direction, and daylength (photoperiod). To do so, specialized
photoreceptors evolved. These include several classes of blue light receptors: the cryptochromes
(CRYs; covered in this review), the phototropins responsible for directional growth towards the
light (phototropism), chloroplast movement within the cell and opening of stomata, which are the
air pores in plant leaves.
Cryptochrome is a class of flavoprotein that encompasses a blue light driven reaction cycle.
Photolyase and cryptochrome are functionally different but possess similar photoactive domains.
Cryptochrome is involved in the circadian clocks of plants and animals, and the sensing of
magnetic fields in a number of species.
HISTORY AND DISCOVERY
Although Charles Darwin first documented plant responses to blue light in the 1800s, it was not
until the 1980s that research began to identify the pigment responsible. In 1996 and 1998, cry
homologous were identified in drosophila and mice, respectively.
Cryptochromes (CRY) are photosensory receptors that regulate growth and development in
plants and the circadian clock in plants and animals. Plant cryptochromes are best studied
in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). The Arabidopsis genome encodes three cryptochrome
genes, CRY1, CRY2, and CRY3. CRY1 and CRY2 act primarily in the nucleus, whereas CRY3
probably functions in chloroplasts and mitochondria.
Plants depend on cryptochromes and other photoreceptors to sense environmental cues, such as
irradiance, day-night transition, photoperiods, and light quality for optimal growth and
development. It is well known that Arabidopsis CRY1 and CRY2 mediate primarily blue light
regulation of de-etiolation and photoperiodic control of flowering, respectively. In addition, these
two photoreceptors regulate other aspects of plant growth and development, including
entrainment of the circadian clock, guard cell development and stomatal opening, root growth,
plant height, fruit and ovule size, tropic growth, apical dominance, apical meristem activity,
programmed cell death, the high-light stress response, osmotic stress response, shade avoidance,
and responses to bacterial and viral pathogens.
In response to blue light, CRYs regulate almost every stage in the plant life cycle, from seedling
establishment to the induction of reproductive growth. The most pronounced phenotype is
observed in germinating seedlings. A germinating seedling is supported by storage reserves in
the seed only for a few days after which it needs to start photosynthesis to survive and sustain
further growth. This process is called de-etiolation and includes the opening of closed embryonic
leaves (cotyledons), the differentiation of initially immature chloroplasts into organelles fully
capable of photosynthesis, the biosynthesis of chlorophyll pigment as well as the shortening of
the embryonic stem (hypocotyl). Deetiolation is induced by blue light through CRYs and by red
light through phytochrome photoreceptors.
CRYs are also involved in the protection of plants from excess light by inducing the
biosynthesis of substances that protect the photosynthetic apparatus from oxidative damage as
well as by enhancing the production of UV-absorbing anthocyanin pigments.
