Department of Biology, University of Washington, 24 Kincaid Hall, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA.
Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2010 Oct;13(5):594-603. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2010.05.004.
Plants utilize circadian clocks to synchronize their physiological and developmental events with daily and yearly changes in the environment. Recent advances in Arabidopsis research have provided a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock and photoperiodism. One of the most important questions is whether the mechanisms discovered in Arabidopsis are conserved in other plant species. Through the identification of many Arabidopsis clock gene homologs and the characterization of some gene functions, a strong resemblance between the circadian clocks in plants has been observed. On the contrary, based on our recent increased knowledge of photoperiodic flowering mechanisms in cereals and other plants, the day-length sensing mechanisms appear to have diverged more between long-day plants and short-day plants.
植物利用生物钟将其生理和发育事件与环境中的日变化和年变化同步。最近在拟南芥研究方面的进展，使人们对生物钟和光周期现象的分子机制有了更好的理解。其中一个最重要的问题是，在拟南芥中发现的机制是否在其他植物物种中保守。通过鉴定许多拟南芥生物钟基因的同源物，并对一些基因功能进行了描述，人们观察到植物生物钟之间具有很强的相似性。相反，根据我们最近对谷类作物和其他植物光周期开花机制的了解，长日植物和短日植物之间的日长感应机制似乎已经有了更多的分化。
