There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Biological time-keeping mechanisms have fascinated researchers since the movement
of leaves with a daily rhythm was first described >270 years ago. The circadian clock
confers a approximately 24-hour rhythm on a range of processes including leaf movements
and the expression of some genes. Molecular mechanisms and components underlying clock
function have been described in recent years for several animal and prokaryotic organisms,
and those of plants are beginning to be characterized. The emerging model of the Arabidopsis
clock has mechanistic parallels with the clocks of other model organisms, which consist
of positive and negative feedback loops, but the molecular components appear to be
unique to plants.