title: The plant circadian clock looks like a traditional Japanese clock rather than a modern Western clock.
abstract: Life cycle adaptation to seasonal changes in photoperiod and ambient temperature is a major determinant of the ecological success behind the widespread domestication of flowering plants. The circadian clock plays a role in the underlying mechanism for adaptation through generating endogenous rhythms that allow plants to adapt and adjust to both the 24 h diurnal rotation and 365 d seasonal revolution. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which the circadian clock tracks seasonal changes in photoperiod and temperature is a longstanding subject in the field. Recently, we have begun to understand the question of how the light and ambient temperature signals feed into the circadian clock transcriptional circuitry in day-night cycles in order to track seasonal changes in photoperiod and ambient temperature. (1-4) Our results collectively indicate that the evening complex (EC) nighttime repressor consisting of LUX-ELF3-ELF4 plays a crucial role in this respect. Here, we discuss about these recent studies to add further implications.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Molecular and Functional Genomics; School of Agriculture; Nagoya University ; Nagoya , Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Molecular and Functional Genomics; School of Agriculture; Nagoya University ; Nagoya , Japan.
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamashino
mesh_terms: D057906:Circadian Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D007564:Japan; D017440:Photoperiod; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; circadian clock; light response; photoperiod; temperature response; transcription circuitry