Colors in the dark

Abstract

Carotenoids are plastidial isoprenoid pigments essential for plant life. High carotenoid levels are found in chloroplasts and chromoplasts, but they are also produced in the etioplasts of seedlings that germinate in the dark. Our recent work has shown that an enhanced production of carotenoids in plastids of dark-grown Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings results in an improved transition to photosynthetic development (greening) upon illumination, illustrating the relevance of regulating etioplast carotenoid biosynthesis for plant fitness. We showed that the biosynthesis of etioplast carotenoids is controlled at the level of phytoene synthase (PSY), the enzyme catalyzing the first committed step of the pathway. Upregulation of PSY is necessary and sufficient to increase the production of carotenoids in dark-grown seedlings, in part because it triggers a feedback mechanism leading to the post-transcriptional accumulation of flux-controlling enzymes of the methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, which synthesizes the substrates for PSY activity. Based on these and other recent data on the molecular mechanisms controlling deetiolation, we propose a model for the regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in etioplasts.