In: Biology
1) Some etiolated seedlings develop hairs on their epidermis when exposed to dim light. Please Describe an experiment to test the hypothesis that a phytochrome is the photoreceptor for this effect?
phytochromes are the photoreceptor of plants that are required for plants for the detection of light. They are used to detec red anf far red light portion of the visible sprectrum . They are consist of two chain structure and each composed of PAS and GAF domain. PAS is required for signal sensing while GAF is able to bind cGMP. GAF is also responsible for identify light signal. Phytochromes are responsible for seed germination, seedling elongation or chrolophyll synthesis.
to test the hypothesis, whether photorepetor is reponsible for etiolated seedling development, either PAS or GAF domain or both domain can be deleted my homologous recombination or the expression can be reduced by knock down approach. Once the domains are deleted or the phytochrome protein expression is reduced, then the same experiments can be performed in presence of dim light. If photoreceptor is involvement in developing hairs on the epidermis of etioletd seedlings, there will be either no hair formation or reduced formation.