Sunlight provides the energy source for plants. UV-B radiation, as an intrinsic component of sunlight, additionally works as a key stimulus to regulate numerous aspects of plant growth and development through the UV-B photoreceptor UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 (UVR8). UVR8 is the only identified photoreceptor that specifically perceives UV-B and has been proven to regulate multiple responses including metabolism, morphogenesis, defence, photosynthetic competence, thermomorphogenesis, flowering time, etc, many of which are relevant to crop productivity and nutritional quality. My recent work with Arabidopsis has shown that UVR8 is phosphorylated and a highly conserved amino acid in the C-terminal region, Serine 402 (S402) is the main site. I showed that S402 phosphorylation differentialy affects protein interactions with UVR8 and enhances the accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonoids, which is important to both abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and the nutritional quality of harvested products.

Discoveries in model plants such as Arabidopsis can provide important directions for crop improvement. UVR8 is a highly conserved protein in the plant kingdom. However, there is little information on how UV-B could regulate crop growth and development through UVR8 and how UVR8 could be manipulated in crops to improve crop productivity, nutritional quality and resilience to climate change. Food security is an urgent global issue, and nowadays this issue must meet the challenge of climate change. Brassica crops are a major source of food and oil worldwide. The main challenges in Brassica crop production are pests and pathogens, heat and drought stresses. UV-B/UVR8 could potentially be involved in many aspects of these challenges.

The objectives of our research are 1) to discover how UV-B signalling could regulate the model Brassica crop through UVR8 and 2) to explore how to apply this knowledge to improve the resilience of Brassica crops to the changing climate, aiming to provide solutions to the food security issue. The research involves diverse techniques of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, gene editing, genotyping and phenotyping.

More information:

1. Jenkins (2017) Photomorphogenic responses to ultraviolet-B light. Plant Cell and Environment 40: 2544-2557.
2. Liu et al. (2024) Phosphorylation of Arabidopsis UVR8 photoreceptor modulates protein interactions and responses to UV-B radiation. Nature Communications, 15: 1221.
3. Liu & Jenkins (2025) Recent advances in UV-B signalling: interaction of proteins with the UVR8 photoreceptor. Journal of Experimental Botany 76, 876-881.