Evolution of light-regulated plant promoters

In this review, we address the phylogenetic and structural relationships between light-responsive promoter regions from a range of plant genes, that could explain both their common dependence on specific photoreceptor-associated transduction pathways and their functional versatility. The well-known multipartite light-responsive elements (LREs) of flowering plants share sequences very similar to motifs in the promoters of orthologous genes from conifers, ferns, and mosses, whose genes are expressed in absence of light. Therefore, composite LREs have apparently evolved from cis-regulatory units involved in other promoter functions, a notion with significant implications to our understanding of the structural and functional organization of angiosperm LREs.