RESUMO
The circadian oscillator, an internal time-keeping device found in most organisms, enables timely regulation of daily biological activities by maintaining synchrony with the external environment. The mechanistic basis underlying the adjustment of circadian rhythms to changing external conditions, however, has yet to be clearly elucidated. We explored the mechanism of action of nicotinamide in Arabidopsis thaliana, a metabolite that lengthens the period of circadian rhythms, to understand the regulation of circadian period. To identify the key mechanisms involved in the circadian response to nicotinamide, we developed a systematic and practical modeling framework based on the identification and comparison of gene regulatory dynamics. Our mathematical predictions, confirmed by experimentation, identified key transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of circadian period and uncovered the role of blue light in the response of the circadian oscillator to nicotinamide. We suggest that our methodology could be adapted to predict mechanisms of drug action in complex biological systems.
Assuntos
Arabidopsis , Ritmo Circadiano , Regulação da Expressão Gênica de Plantas , Arabidopsis/efeitos dos fármacos , Arabidopsis/genética , Arabidopsis/fisiologia , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/análise , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/genética , Proteínas de Arabidopsis/metabolismo , Ritmo Circadiano/efeitos dos fármacos , Ritmo Circadiano/genética , Ritmo Circadiano/fisiologia , Perfilação da Expressão Gênica , Regulação da Expressão Gênica de Plantas/efeitos dos fármacos , Regulação da Expressão Gênica de Plantas/genética , Regulação da Expressão Gênica de Plantas/fisiologia , Modelos Biológicos , Niacinamida/farmacologia , Biologia de Sistemas , TranscriptomaRESUMO
Circadian clocks regulate many aspects of plant physiology and development that contribute to essential agronomic traits. Circadian clocks contain transcriptional feedback loops that are thought to generate circadian timing. There is considerable similarity in the genes that comprise the transcriptional and translational feedback loops of the circadian clock in the plant Kingdom. Functional characterisation of circadian clock genes has been restricted to a few model species. Here we provide a functional characterisation of the Hordeum vulgare (barley) circadian clock genes Hv circadian clock associated 1 (HvCCA1) and Hv photoperiodh1, which are respectively most similar to Arabidopsis thaliana circadian clock associated 1 (AtCCA1) and pseudo response regulator 7 (AtPRR7). This provides insight into the circadian regulation of one of the major crop species of Northern Europe. Through a combination of physiological assays of circadian rhythms in barley and heterologous expression in wild type and mutant strains of A. thaliana we demonstrate that HvCCA1 has a conserved function to AtCCA1. We find that Hv photoperiod H1 has AtPRR7-like functionality in A. thaliana and that the effects of the Hv photoperiod h1 mutation on photoperiodism and circadian rhythms are genetically separable.