title: A robust two-gene oscillator at the core of Ostreococcus tauri circadian clock.
abstract: The microscopic green alga Ostreococcus tauri is rapidly emerging as a promising model organism in the green lineage. In particular, recent results by Corellou et al. [Plant Cell 21, 3436 (2009)] and Thommen et al. [PLOS Comput. Biol. 6, e1000990 (2010)] strongly suggest that its circadian clock is a simplified version of Arabidopsis thaliana clock, and that it is architectured so as to be robust to natural daylight fluctuations. In this work, we analyze the time series data from luminescent reporters for the two central clock genes TOC1 and CCA1 and correlate them with microarray data previously analyzed. Our mathematical analysis strongly supports both the existence of a simple two-gene oscillator at the core of Ostreococcus tauri clock and the fact that its dynamics is not affected by light in normal entrainment conditions, a signature of its robustness.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes, Molécules, Université Lille 1, CNRS, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Emmanuel
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Morant
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Thommen
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pfeuty
authors.forename: Constant
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vandermoere
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corellou
authors.forename: François-Yves
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Bouget
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lefranc
mesh_terms: D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000235:genetics* / Q000528:radiation effects; D057906:Circadian Clocks / Q000235:genetics* / Q000528:radiation effects; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000235:genetics / Q000528:radiation effects; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000528:radiation effects; D008027:Light; D008954:Models, Biological; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger