Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom - TAIR

Membranes, temperature and the plant clock C09
Wednesday 14:50 - 15:05
Environmental responses
Circadian clocks are an important adaptation to life on a rotating planet and are
found in all eukaryotes. The cycle of day and night is the major signal used by a
clock to synchronise with its environment. Temperature cycles can entrain the
Arabidopsis clock in constant light or dark, hence the circadian system also
integrates information from daily changes in temperature. However, no
temperature receptor is known in higher plants. Preliminary experiments have
revealed that the viscosity of wild type Arabidopsis plant cell membranes alters
across the day and this response is changed in plants with mutations in fatty
acid biosynthesis pathways (fatty acid desaturase (fad) mutants). We have
examined the circadian phenotypes of a range of fad mutants and found a subset
have temperature-sensitive circadian phenotypes and changes in temperature
compensation. Hypocotyl growth and flowering time are affected in the same
mutants, suggesting that fad mutations cause pleiotropic effects in a range of
light and clock pathways. This is suggestive that the membranes are involved in
temperature sensing. Given the apparent requirement for normal lipid synthesis
for temperature compensation of a fungal clock, this work will allow a
comparative view of ‘thermometer’ function in circadian clocks.
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Alexandre Martiniere1
Nicola Evans2
John Runions1
Harriet McWatters2
1Oxford Brookes University
Oxford
UK
2University of Oxford
Oxford
UK