Abstract
It has been nearly 300 years since the first scientific demonstration of a self-sustaining circadian clock in plants. It has become clear that plants are richly rhythmic, and many aspects of plant biology, including photosynthetic light harvesting and carbon assimilation, resistance to abiotic stresses, pathogens, and pests, photoperiodic flower induction, petal movement, and floral fragrance emission, exhibit circadian rhythmicity in one or more plant species. Much experimental effort, primarily, but not exclusively in Arabidopsis thaliana, has been expended to characterize and understand the plant circadian oscillator, which has been revealed to be a highly complex network of interlocked transcriptional feedback loops. In addition, the plant circadian oscillator has employed a panoply of post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, including alternative splicing, adjustable rates of translation, and regulated protein activity and stability. This review focuses on our present understanding of the regulatory network that comprises the plant circadian oscillator. The complexity of this oscillatory network facilitates the maintenance of robust rhythmicity in response to environmental extremes and permits nuanced control of multiple clock outputs. Consistent with this view, the clock is emerging as a target of domestication and presents multiple targets for targeted breeding to improve crop performance.
Highlights
This special issue celebrates the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology awarded to Jeff Hall, MichaelRosbash, and Mike Young
Plant circadian clocks share a common architecture with clocks of all eukaryotes: Interlocked negative feedback loops [1,154]
Plant clocks employ a diverse array of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms to establish a robust oscillation that is resilient in the face of environmental fluctuations, yet responsive to environmental time cues
Summary
This special issue celebrates the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology awarded to Jeff Hall, Michael. The modern era of investigation into the molecular basis for plant circadian rhythms began with the observation that the transcript abundance of three photosynthetic genes of pea, including that encoding a light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein (LHCB, called CAB), cycled with a circadian period [13]. The cloning of TOC1 identified it as encoding a nuclear protein with sequence motifs similar to those found in two-component signal-transduction systems common in bacteria [28] This was the first molecular indication that the plant clock might share the design logic of animal and fungal clocks as interlocked feedback loops but is composed of components distinct from those found in animal and fungal clocks. The Plant Clock Consists of Multiple Interlocked Transcriptional Feedback Loops
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
