Gearing up the clock of hypocotyl growth!

Abstract

To anticipate daily changes imposed by Earth?s ro-tation, organisms from all domains of life have evolvedan endogenous 24-h timer with daily rhythmic func-tions: the circadian clock. In plants, the first organisms where circadian dynamics were observed, the circadianclock processes daylength information to regulate awide range of physiological and developmental re-sponses (Greenham and McClung, 2015). Under nor-mal photoperiodic conditions, hypocotyl elongationis a robust response that can be observed to monitorthe circadian regulation of plant growth (Nusinowet al., 2011). However, the regulatory networks con-trolling this physiological mechanism remain poorlyunderstood.