The Conserved and Specific Roles of the in Circadian Clock and Nodulation.

() plays a key role in circadian rhythms and flowering. Here, we identified the gene which is the putative ortholog of in . The roles of , in both the nodulation belowground and leaf movement aboveground, were investigated by characterizing a loss-of-function mutant. was required for the control of flowering time under both long-day and short-day conditions. Further investigations showed that the early flowering in the mutant was correlated with the elevated expression level of the gene but in a - independent manner. played a conserved role in the regulatory interactions with , , and genes, which is similar to those in other species. Meanwhile, the unexpected functions of were revealed in nodule formation and nyctinastic leaf movement, probably through the indirect regulation in . Its participation in nodulation is of interest in the context of functional conservation and the neo-functionalization of the products of orthologs.