The spinning of the Earth results in the night-day cycle that we're familiar with but also comes with a whole suite of other environmental fluctuations. These fluctuations in light and temperature have had a profound impact on the lives of organisms across the plant. As plants depend upon light for photosynthesis and are fixed to one place, these daily environmental changes have allowed plants to evolve internal circadian "clocks" allowing cells to tell the time of day.
Circadian rhythms are biological cycles that have a period of about 24 hours, and continue in the absence of external stimuli because the rhythm is generated within the cells. Circadian regulation is important to plants, including our crops, because it influences most of plant physiology, development and metabolism. Circadian rhythms influence the rate of photosynthesis and water use, responses to abiotic and biotic stress, the rate of growth, and determine the season of the year in which many plants reproduce.
In Antony’s talk, he will explain some of the fundamental processes that define and regulate circadian rhythms in plants to control these processes. He will also explore new insights from his group concerning roles for circadian rhythms in the adaptation of plants and their environments, focusing on cell signalling and gene regulation.
00:00 Introduction
02:51 What are circadian rhythms?
09:41 How are circadian rhythms generated in cells?
22:14 Circadian rhythms in chloroplasts
32:27 Daily variation in herbicide effectiveness
41:22 Conclusion
Speaker profile: Antony started his career in plant sciences at Newcastle University, with a BSc in Plant Biology. He subsequently pursued a fascination with succulents through a PhD in the laboratories of Prof Anne Borland and Prof Howard Griffiths, focusing on 24 hour cycle carbohydrate metabolism in CAM plants. After his PhD, he moved to Prof Alex Webb’s group in Cambridge, where he studied the circadian regulation of calcium-signalling, and made the breakthrough discovery that circadian rhythms increase plant growth and fitness. He was subsequently awarded a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship that was hosted at the University of York and subsequently the University of Bristol, and developed lines of research on circadian signal transduction, circadian clock control of physiology (e.g. water use and photosynthesis), and how knowledge of circadian rhythms can be used to reduce agrochemical use and improve the efficiency of vertical farms. During this time, he was awarded the Daiwa Adrian Prize, which recognises excellence in collaborative research with laboratories in Japan. He moved to the John Innes Centre in 2019, where his research group is based, and where he is currently Head of Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. The lab currently focuses entirely on circadian regulation, in several plant species (Arabidopsis, wheat, pea, liverworts, algae), in human health, and in non-photosynthetic bacteria.
Filmed at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School, 2022.
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