New research shows metabolism can rewire light sensors, hinting at crops built for extreme environments.
Michigan State University researchers have revealed a new way plants shape their growth in response to light. The discovery could give crop breeders and seed companies more tools to develop varieties that thrive in stressful environments.
The team found that a compound involved in plant metabolism can “reprogram” a light-sensing protein, creating an unexpected link between metabolism and light perception. The work, published in Nature Communications, could open the door to crops that make more efficient use of light energy and better tolerate stress.
“In the future, this mechanism could be exploited to fine-tune plant growth, development and stress responses,” MSU Research Foundation professor Erich Grotewold said in the news release. “This could lead to crops with improved tolerance to light stress and more efficient use of light energy, without relying solely on environmental modifications.”
The Discovery
Grotewold and his team were studying Arabidopsis mutants that lacked an enzyme for producing certain flavonoids. They noticed one type of mutant had severe growth defects under light stress, even though wild type plants and other mutants grew normally.
The culprit was a compound called naringenin chalcone, or NGC, which built up in the plants because of the missing enzyme. Normally, NGC is just one step in the pathway to making flavonoids, compounds that serve as natural “sunscreens” and defenses against pests.
Further experiments showed NGC could interact with a protein called UVR8. This protein usually senses ultraviolet-B light. But when reprogrammed by NGC, UVR8 sent growth-regulating signals even without UV-B present.
“We were surprised to discover that naringenin chalcone, a metabolic intermediate, could directly modulate the function of a light-sensing protein like UVR8,” said Nan Jiang, lead author and former Grotewold lab researcher, now assistant professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. “This kind of cross-talk between specialized metabolism and photoreceptor signaling opens up an entirely new way of thinking about how plants integrate metabolic status with environmental perception.”
Why It Matters for Crops
Too much light can damage plants, just like sunburn damages skin. By linking metabolism with light-sensing pathways, plants may have an added way to fine-tune growth and protect themselves.
“If you treat a plant with UV light and nothing else, it’s nearly lethal — but if you increase that UV intensity by a hundred times in the context of white light, the plant knows exactly how to deal with it,” Grotewold explained. “That’s what we think NGC is doing — helping integrate light signaling with developmental signaling.”
The findings point to new ways breeders and seed companies could adjust light responses at the molecular level. Crops may one day be designed to perform better in low-light greenhouses, tolerate intense field conditions, or better resist pathogens.
“This work reveals a novel layer of regulatory complexity,” Jiang said. “It suggests that plants can use small molecules not just as end-products or defense compounds, but also as signaling messengers that fine-tune key physiological responses like growth and development.”