Abstract

Plants can adapt and respond to their environment in a variety of ways. They have evolved sophisticated mechanisms, specifically, to respond to light. The LRBs (Light Response BTB) are E3 ligases, which are proteins involved in the degradation of other proteins in light. The LRBs are also involved in the degradation of Frigida (FRI), a protein that regulates flowering time. LRB is able to degrade FRI and allow the plant to flower. The mechanism that LRB employs to degrade FRI remains unknown. There is evidence that LRB attaches a protein tag to FRI and this may play a role in its degradation. To investigate this notion, we attempted to purify GFP-tagged LRB’s from plants grown in different light conditions to detect the FRI interaction. We may have been able to successfully purify GFP-LRB. We were unable to determine if FRI was attached to the purified LRB’s since we could not get the FRI antibody to work. This work may aid in our understanding of light and flowering in plants.