GSE117797
ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 mediates blue light signalling to the Arabidopsis circadian clock
Circadian clocks are gene networks producing 24-h oscillations at the level of clock gene expression that is synchronized to environmental cycles via light signals.   The ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) transcription factor is a signalling hub acting downstream of several photoreceptors and is a key regulator of photomorphogenesis.   Here we describe a mechanism by which light quality could modulate the pace of the circadian clock through controlling abundance of HY5. We show that hy5 mutants display   remarkably shorter period rhythms in blue but not in red light or darkness and blue light is more efficient than red to induce accumulation of HY5 at transcriptional and   post-transcriptional levels. We demonstrate that the pattern and level of HY5 accumulation modulates its binding to specific promoter elements of majority of   clock genes, but only a few of these show altered transcription in the hy5 mutant. Mathematical modelling suggests that the direct effect of HY5 on the apparently non-responsive   clock genes could be masked by feed-back from the clock gene network. We conclude that the information on the ratio of blue and red components of the white light spectrum is   decoded and relayed to the circadian oscillator, at least partially, by HY5. Overall design: Study was carried out on two treatment groups (blue light vs red light) containing 3-3 biological replicates each. As a common reference point, a single pooled mock sample was used. Total number of samples is seven.