Arabidopsis FHY3/CPD45 regulates far-red light signaling and chloroplast division in parallel

CPD45 (chloroplast division45), which is also known as FHY3 (far-red elongated hypocotyl3), is a key factor in the far-red light signaling pathway in Arabidopsis. We previously showed that FHY3/CPD45 also regulates chloroplast division. Because light is also a regulator of chloroplast development and division, we sought to clarify the relationship between far-red light signaling and chloroplast division pathways. We found that the chloroplast division mutantarc5-3 had no defect in far-red light sensing, and that constitutive overexpression of ARC5 rescued the chloroplast division defect, but not the defect in far-red light signaling, of cpd45. fhy1, which is defective in far-red light signaling, exhibited normal chloroplast division. Constitutive overexpression of FHY1 rescued the far-red light signaling defect, but not the chloroplast division defect, of cpd45. Moreover, ARC5 and FHY1 expression were not affected in fhy1 and arc5-3, respectively. Based on these results, we propose that FHY3/CPD45 regulates far-red light signaling and chloroplast division in parallel by activating the expression of FHY1 and ARC5 independently. This work demonstrates how relationships between different pathways in a gene regulatory network can be explored.