The role of sugar-responsive bZIP transcription factors in the regulation of the circadian oscillator of Arabidopsis

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Due to population growth and changing environments there is an urgent need to understand the basic biology that regulates the yield of crop plants. We have recently discovered a new pathway that regulates the ability of plants to tell the time, balance sugar resources correctly and grow. We have discovered that cellular sugars speed up the circadian clock, whereas low sugars makes the circadian clock run more slowly. We have evidence that this change in the speed of the plant circadian clock is important in regulating the balance between consumption and storage of sugars. Our studies have identified a protein that is required for the correct control of circadian speed in response to sugars, this protein is called BASIC LEUCINE ZIPPER63 (bZIP63). We will discover if other bZIP proteins regulate the circadian clock, we will discover the changes in gene expression controlled by the bZIP proteins, we will work out how the bZIP proteins regulate gene expression and therefore the circadian clock. Lastly, we will discover the changes in plant physiology and metabolism that occur as a result of bZIP proteins regulating the circadian clock. These studies will begin to resolve why bZIP63, a regulator of the response of plants to sugar status, and often associated with starvation responses, regulates the speed of the circadian oscillator. We will resolve how this sugar-sensitive signalling pathway regulates the circadian clock to optimise carbon use in the plant. This is a collaboration between Prof Alex Webb (Cambridge, UK) who studies circadian clocks and Prof Michel Vincentz (Campinas, Brazil) an expert in bZIP transcription factors and carbon homeostasis. Our work is performed in the model plant Arabidopsis and findings will be transferred to breeders of UK crops, such as wheat, and Brazilian crops such as sugar cane, through relationships of the researchers with industrial partners, and through ongoing research programmes in the applicants' laboratories.