How plants use sunlight to set their internal clocks
Shi C, Jia X, Qi S, Liu H
Plant Signaling
Every time you notice your garden waking up at dawn or your houseplant leaves tracking the window, you're watching this light-to-clock signaling system in action.
Plants have an internal clock, much like ours, that keeps track of roughly 24 hours so they know when to grow, open their flowers, or conserve energy. This clock only works well because special proteins called photoreceptors detect sunlight and reset it every day, keeping the plant in step with the actual sunrise and sunset. This review pulls together what scientists know about how those light sensors and the clock's gears interact in Arabidopsis, a small mustard plant that's the lab rat of the plant world.
Key Findings
Review synthesizes current knowledge on interactions between distinct classes of photoreceptors and core circadian oscillator components in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Light acts as the primary zeitgeber (time cue) that resets the plant clock, with photoreceptors modulating both transcription and activity of oscillator genes.
The relationship is bidirectional: the circadian clock also feeds back to shape how plants respond to light across different wavelengths.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Plants use light-sensing proteins to keep their internal 24-hour clock in sync with the sun, which controls everything from when leaves open to when flowers bloom. This review maps out how those light sensors and the plant's clock talk to each other in Arabidopsis, a common lab plant.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Light at the heart of time: How photoreceptors entrain the circadian clock.
As the primary driver of photosynthesis, light also serves as a crucial environmental cue that directs plant growth and developmental programs. The circadian clock functions as an intrinsic timing ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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