TIME FOR COFFEE is an essential component in the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Abstract

Plants often respond to environmental changes by reprogramming metabolic and stress-associated pathways. Homeostatic integration of signaling is a central requirement for ensuring metabolic stability in living organisms. Under diurnal conditions, properly timed rhythmic metabolism provides fitness benefits to plants. TIME FOR COFFEE (TIC) is a circadian regulator known to be involved in clock resetting at dawn. Here we explored the mechanism of influence of TIC in plant growth and development, as initiated by a microarray analysis. This global profiling showed that a loss of TIC function causes a major reprogramming of gene expression that predicts numerous developmental, metabolic, and stress-related phenotypes. This led us to demonstrate that this mutant exhibits late flowering, a plastochron defect, and diverse anatomical phenotypes. We further observed a starch-excess phenotype and altered soluble carbohydrate levels. tic exhibited hypersensitivity to oxidative stress and abscisic acid, and this was associated with a striking resistance to drought. These phenotypes were connected to an increase in total glutathione levels that correlated with a readjustment of amino acids and polyamine pools. By comparatively analyzing our transcriptomic and metabolomic data, we concluded that TIC is a central element in plant homeostasis that integrates and coordinates developmental, metabolic, and environmental signals.

• Authors: Alfredo Sanchez-Villarreal, Jieun Shin, Nora Bujdoso, Toshihiro Obata, Ulla Neumann, Shen-Xiu Du, Zhaojun Ding, Amanda M Davis, Takayuki Shindo, Elmon Schmelzer, Ronan Sulpice, Adriano Nunes-Nesi, Mark Stitt, Alisdair R Fernie, Seth J Davis
• Journal: The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology (Plant J) Vol. 76 Issue 2 Pg. 188-200 (Oct 2013) ISSN: 1365-313X [Electronic] England
• PMID: 23869666 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2013 The Authors The Plant Journal © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Chemical References

• Arabidopsis Proteins
• Nuclear Proteins
• TIC protein, Arabidopsis
• Abscisic Acid
• Glutathione

Topics

• Abscisic Acid (metabolism)
• Arabidopsis (genetics, metabolism, physiology)
• Arabidopsis Proteins (genetics, physiology)
• Carbohydrate Metabolism
• Circadian Rhythm (genetics)
• Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
• Glutathione (metabolism)
• Homeostasis
• Metabolome
• Nuclear Proteins (genetics, physiology)
• Oxidative Stress
• Phenotype
• Stress, Physiological
• Transcriptome