Crosstalk between the Circadian Clock and Histone Methylation.

The circadian clock and histone modifications could form a feedback loop in Arabidopsis; whether a similar regulatory mechanism exists in rice is still unknown. Previously, we reported that and are two rice heading date regulators in rice. encodes a histone H3K36 methyltransferase, and is a vital circadian rhythm transcription factor. Both could be involved in transcription regulatory mechanisms and could affect gene expression in various pathways. To explore the crosstalk between the circadian clock and histone methylation in rice, we studied the relationship between and via the transcriptome analysis of their single and double mutants, , , and . Screening of overlapped DEGs and KEGG pathways between and revealed that they could control many overlapped pathways indirectly. Furthermore, we identified three candidate targets (, and ) of OsLHY and one candidate target () of SDG724 in the clock pathway. Our results showed a regulatory relationship between and , which paved the way for revealing the interaction between the circadian clock and histone H3K36 methylation.