Projects per year
Abstract
Trees are carbon dioxide sinks and major producers of terrestrial biomass with distinct seasonal growth patterns. Circadian clocks enable the co-ordination of physiological and biochemical temporal activities, optimally regulating multiple traits including growth. To dissect the clock's role in growth, we analysed Populus tremula × P. tremuloides trees with impaired clock function due to down-regulation of central clock components. late elongated hypocotyl (lhy-10) trees, in which expression of LHY1 and LHY2 is reduced by RNAi, have a short free-running period and show disrupted temporal regulation of gene expression and reduced growth, producing 30-40% less biomass than wild-type trees. Genes important in growth regulation were expressed with an earlier phase in lhy-10, and CYCLIN D3 expression was misaligned and arrhythmic. Levels of cytokinins were lower in lhy-10 trees, which also showed a change in the time of peak expression of genes associated with cell division and growth. However, auxin levels were not altered in lhy-10 trees and the size of the lignification zone in the stem showed a relative increase. The reduced growth rate and anatomical features of lhy-10 trees were mainly caused by misregulation of cell division, which may have resulted from impaired clock function.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Plant, Cell and Environment |
Early online date | 8 Mar 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- Biomass production
- cell division
- circadian clock
- cytokinin
- growth
- lignification
- Circadian
- photoperiod
- hormones
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Dive into the research topics of 'Circadian clock components control daily growth activities by modulating cytokinin levels and cell division-associated gene expression in Populus trees'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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SynthSys; formerly CSBE: Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh
Millar, A., Beggs, J., Ghazal, P., Goryanin, I., Hillston, J., Plotkin, G., Tollervey, D., Walton, A. & Robertson, K.
8/01/07 → 31/12/12
Project: Research
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