How do plants sense time and temperature?

Abstract: My research interests involve the properties of biological molecules that allow processes to be controlled. The circadian clock in plants influences such crucial processes as metabolism and photosynthesis, growth, flowering and the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. I will discuss aspects of the organ specificity of the circadian clock, how the clock in roots differs from that in shoots in constant light and how roots become synchronised with shoots in light/dark cycles. Several mechanisms have been proposed for this; I will show evidence that implicates light piping. We discovered (accidentally!) that several circadian clock genes show temperature-dependent alternative splicing. I will describe some of our work on components of the splicing machinery through which we are trying to understand how temperature changes can affect some, but not all, splicing events.

Host: Seth Davis