In Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock regulates diurnal and photoperiodic plant growth including the elongation of hypocotyls in a time-of-day-specific and short-day (SD)-specific manner. The ...clock-controlled PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) encoding a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor plays crucial roles in this regulation. PIF4 is transcribed precociously at the end of the night in SDs, under which conditions the protein product is stably accumulated, while PIF4 is expressed exclusively during the daytime in long days (LDs), under which conditions the protein product is degraded by light-activated phytochrome B. The dawn- and SD-specific elongation of hypocotyls is best explained by the coincident accumulation of the active PIF4 protein during the night-time before dawn specifically in SDs. However, this coincidence model was challenged with the recent finding that the elongation of hypocotyls is markedly promoted at high growth temperature (i.e. 28°C) even under LDs in a PIF4-dependent manner. Here, we reconciled these apparently conflicting facts by showing that the transcription of PIF4 occurs precociously at the end of the night-time at 28°C in LDs, similarly to in SDs. Both the events resulted in the same consequence, i.e. that a set of PIF4 target genes (ATHB2, GH3.5, IAA19, IAA29, BRox2, GAI, ACS8 and CKX5) was induced accordingly in a time-of-day-specific manner. Taken together, we propose an extended double coincidence mechanism, by which the two environmental cues (i.e. photoperiods and temperatures), both of which vary on a season to season basis, are integrated into the same clock- and PIF4-mediated output pathway and regulate a hormone signaling network to fit plant architectures properly to domestic habitats.
The plant circadian clock generates rhythms with a period close to 24 h, and it controls a wide variety of physiological and developmental events, enabling plants to adapt to ever-changing ...environmental light conditions. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the clock regulates the diurnal and photoperiodic plant growth including the elongation of hypocotyls and petioles in a time-of-day-specific and short-day (SD)-specific manner. In this mechanism, the clock-regulated PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 gene encoding a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, together with phytochromes (mainly phyB), plays crucial roles. This diurnal and photoperiodic control of plant growth is best explained by the accumulation of the PIF4 protein at the end of the night-time specifically under SDs, due to coincidence between the internal (circadian rhythm) and external (photoperiod) cues. In this model, however, the PIF4-controlled downstream factors are not fully identified, although it has been generally proposed that the auxin-mediated signal transduction is crucially implicated. Here, we identified a set of hormone-associated genes as the specific PIF4 targets implicated in the photoperiodic control of plant growth. They include not only auxin-associated genes (GH3.5, IAA19 and IAA29), but also genes associated with other growth-regulating hormones such as brassinosteroids (BR6ox2), gibberellic acids (GAI), ethylene (ACS8) and cytokinin (CKX5). The dawn- and SD-specific expression profiles of these genes are modified in a set of phyB and clock mutants, both of which compromise the coincidence mechanism. The results of this study suggest that the circadian clock orchestrates a variety of hormone signaling pathways to regulate the photoperiod-dependent morphogenesis in A. thaliana.
In Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock regulates the photoperiodic plant growth including the elongation of hypocotyls in a short-days (SDs)-specific manner. The clock-controlled ...PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) gene encoding a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor plays crucial roles in this regulation. The SDs-specific elongation of hypocotyls is best explained by accumulation of the active PIF4 proteins at the end of night specifically in SDs due to coincidence between internal (circadian clock) and external (photoperiod) cues. However, this external coincidence model was challenged with the recent finding that the elongation of hypocotyls is markedly promoted at high growth temperature (28˚C) even in long-days (LDs), implying that the model to explain the photoperiodic response of plant architecture appears to be conditional on ambient temperature. With regard to this problem, the results of this and previous studies showed that the model holds under a wide range of ambient temperature conditions (16˚C to 28˚C). We propose that the circadian clock and PIF4-mediated external coincidence mechanism coordinately integrates both of the cues from seasonal changes in photoperiod and temperature to regulate plant growth in natural habitats.
In Arabidopsis thaliana, the circadian clock regulates the photoperiodic plant growth including the elongation of hypocotyls in a short-days (SDs)-specific manner. The clock-controlled ...PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) gene encoding a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor plays crucial roles in this regulation. The SDs-specific elongation of hypocotyls is best explained by accumulation of the active PIF4 proteins at the end of night specifically in SDs due to coincidence between internal (circadian clock) and external (photoperiod) cues. However, this external coincidence model was challenged with the recent finding that the elongation of hypocotyls is markedly promoted at high growth temperature (28˚C) even in long-days (LDs), implying that the model to explain the photoperiodic response of plant architecture appears to be conditional on ambient temperature. With regard to this problem, the results of this and previous studies showed that the model holds under a wide range of ambient temperature conditions (16˚C to 28˚C). We propose that the circadian clock and PIF4-mediated external coincidence mechanism coordinately integrates both of the cues from seasonal changes in photoperiod and temperature to regulate plant growth in natural habitats.
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