Plant cryptochromes employ complicated mechanisms for subcellular localization and are involved in pathways apart from photomorphogenesis

Cryptochromes (CRYs) are photoreceptors mediating developmental responses to blue light throughout the life of plants. Function and signal transduction of CRYs in photomorphogenesis have been well characterized in Arabidopsis. Studies on rice CRYs demonstrate that monocots CRYs may function similarly to their Arabidopsis counterparts. However, there is inconsistency in subcellular localization of CRYs in different species and little has been known about the effects of environmental cues on CRYs except for light. We recently reported that TaCRY1a of monocot wheat displays a light-responsive nucleocytoplasmic shuttling pattern similar to Arabidopsis CRY1 but differs from AtCRY1 and OsCRY1 by containing nuclear localization domains in both its N and C termini and the sequence for nuclear export in its N-terminal domain. TaCRY1a and TaCRY2 are transcriptionally regulated by osmotic stress/ABA and that over-expression of TaCRY1a-GFP and TaCRY2-GFP led to higher sensitivity to high salinity, osmotic stress and ABA treatment. Mining wheat EST database provided additional clues for CRY’s involvement in pathways apart from photomorphogenesis.