Light control of peroxisome proliferation during Arabidopsis photomorphogenesis.

Peroxisomes are multifunctional organelles whose abundance and metabolic activities differ depending on the species, cell type, developmental stage and prevailing environmental conditions.1 However, little is known about the signaling pathways that control these variations, especially in plants. Our laboratory recently investigated the regulatory role of light in changes in peroxisome abundance and identified a phytochrome A-dependent pathway responsible for the proliferation of peroxisomes during dark-to-light transition in Arabidopsis seedlings. Light induces peroxisome proliferation at least in part through upregulating the PEX11b gene, which encodes a peroxisomal membrane protein that mediates the early stages of peroxisome multiplication. Activation of PEX11b requires the far-red light receptor phyA, as well as the bZIP transcription factor HYH, which binds directly to the promoter of PEX11b. We conclude that during photomorphogenesis, both the import of leaf-peroxisome enzymes from the cytosol and the induction of peroxisome proliferation take place to prepare seedlings for photosynthesis and photorespiration. In addition to light, other plant peroxisome proliferators may also exert their functions by targeting members of the PEX11 gene family for transcriptional activation.