Plants do shift work too. Researchers have now discovered an important worker on the second shift.
Jose Pruneda-Paz, Steve A. Kay and their colleagues at the University of California, San Diego report in the March 13 Science that they have found a missing link in plants’ circadian clocks. A regulatory protein called CHE connects a morning cycle to an evening cycle.
Daily rhythms in plants, animals and microorganisms are governed by circadian clocks. Even though the clocks keep time in much the same way, the genes and proteins that make up the gears differ. Scientists are still uncovering all the gears of plants’ clocks.