Two interacting coiled-coil proteins, WEB1 and PMI2, maintain the chloroplast photorelocation movement velocity in Arabidopsis.

Chloroplasts move toward weak light (accumulation response) and away from strong light (avoidance response). The fast and accurate movement of chloroplasts in response to ambient light conditions is essential for efficient photosynthesis and photodamage prevention in chloroplasts. Here, we report that two Arabidopsis mutants, weak chloroplast movement under blue light 1 (web1) and web2, are defective in both the avoidance and the accumulation responses. Map-based cloning revealed that both genes encode coiled-coil proteins and that WEB2 is identical to the plastid movement impaired 2 (PMI2) gene. The velocities of chloroplast movement in web1 and pmi2 were approximately threefold lower than that in the wild type. Defects in the avoidance response of web1 and pmi2 were suppressed by mutation of the J-domain protein required for chloroplast accumulation response 1 (JAC1) gene, which is essential for the accumulation response; these results indicate that WEB1 and PMI2 play a role in suppressing JAC1 under strong light conditions. A yeast two-hybrid analysis and a nuclear recruitment assay identified a physical interaction between WEB1 and PMI2, and transient expression analysis of CFP-WEB1 and YFP-PMI2 revealed that they colocalized in the cytosol. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation analysis confirmed the interaction of these proteins in the cytosol. Blue light-induced changes in short chloroplast actin filaments (cp-actin filaments) were impaired in both web1 and pmi2. Our findings suggest that a cytosolic WEB1-PMI2 complex maintains the velocity of chloroplast photorelocation movement via cp-actin filament regulation.

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