The biogenesis of photosynthetically active chloroplasts in flowering plants (angiosperms) is initiated by light through the red and far‐red photoreceptors, phytochromes, which activate photosynthesis‐associated genes encoded by both the nuclear and plastid genomes. Because photoactivated phytochromes localize to the nucleus but not the plastids, phytochromes ought to control plastid transcription through nucleus‐to‐plastid or anterograde signalling. However, the mechanism of anterograde signalling remains poorly understood. Recent advances in our understanding of phytochrome signalling and plastid transcription led to the discovery of the framework of an anterograde signalling pathway, which links light‐dependent regulation of nuclear repressors of chloroplast biogenesis to the control of the assembly and activity of the bacterial‐type plastidial RNA polymerase for transcribing plastid‐encoded photosynthesis genes.
This article is aimed to gather and reanalyze the evidence in the literature relevant to the phytochrome control of chloroplast biogenesis to forge a model of anterograde signalling mechanisms for the regulation of plastid transcription by light.
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