Direct interaction of Arabidopsis cryptochromes with COP1 in light control development

Arabidopsis seedling photomorphogenesis involves two antagonistically acting components, COP1 and HY5. COP1 specifically targets HY5 for degradation via the 26S proteasome in the dark through their direct physical interaction. Little is known regarding how light signals perceived by photoreceptors are transduced to regulate COP1. Arabidopsis has two related cryptochromes (cry1 and cry2) mediating various blue/ultraviolet-A light responses. Here we show that both photoactivated cryptochromes repress COP1 activity through a direct protein-protein contact and that this direct regulation is primarily responsible for the cryptochrome-mediated blue light regulation of seedling photomorphogenic development and genome expression profile.