Time after time: a quarter century of progress in plant circadian biology.
Harmer SL
Circadian Biology
The tomatoes and wheat in your grocery store may soon be bred with better internal clocks, helping them flower and fruit reliably even as climate change scrambles the seasonal cues they've relied on for millennia.
Plants have internal clocks — like biological alarm systems — that help them know when to open flowers, grow leaves, or prepare for winter. Scientists have spent 25 years mapping how these clocks work at every level, from whole plants down to individual cells. Now they're close to being able to tweak those clocks in crops so food plants can stay on schedule even when the weather throws them off.
Key Findings
Plant circadian (internal) clocks exert pervasive control over physiology, development, and reproductive fitness, including traits shaped by domestication in major crops.
Genomic and systems-level studies revealed that circadian rhythms vary significantly across different tissues and cell types within a single plant, not just across whole organisms.
Emerging bioengineering tools now make it feasible to deliberately redesign plant clocks to improve agricultural resilience under climate change conditions.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A review of 25 years of research on plant internal clocks reveals how plants time their daily and seasonal activities down to the cellular level — and how scientists may soon engineer crops that keep better time in a warming, unpredictable climate.
Abstract Preview
The past 25 years have seen remarkable progress in plant circadian biology. This perspective highlights major advances in our understanding of the oscillator network, the processes it regulates, an...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...