Nyctinastic thallus movement in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha is regulated by a circadian clock

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 8658
• Main Authors: Lagercrantz, Ulf, Billhardt, Anja, Rousku, Sabine N., Ljung, Karin, Eklund, D. Magnus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26-05-2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/136; 631/449; Angiosperms; Animal behavior; Aquatic plants; Botanik; Botany; Circadian Clocks - genetics; Circadian Clocks - physiology; Circadian rhythm; Circadian Rhythm - genetics; Circadian Rhythm - physiology; Circadian rhythms; Cotyledons; Developmental Biology; Environmental factors; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hypocotyls; Indoleacetic Acids - metabolism; Marchantia - genetics; Marchantia - growth & development; Marchantia - physiology; Marchantia polymorpha; multidisciplinary; Oscillations; Plantlets; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sleep; Thallus; Transcription; Transcription Factors - genetics; Utvecklingsbiologi
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65372-8

The circadian clock coordinates an organism’s growth, development and physiology with environmental factors. One illuminating example is the rhythmic growth of hypocotyls and cotyledons in
Arabidopsis thaliana
. Such daily oscillations in leaf position are often referred to as sleep movements or nyctinasty. Here, we report that plantlets of the liverwort
Marchantia polymorpha
show analogous rhythmic movements of thallus lobes, and that the circadian clock controls this rhythm, with auxin a likely output pathway affecting these movements. The mechanisms of this circadian clock are partly conserved as compared to angiosperms, with homologs to the core clock genes
PRR
,
RVE
and
TOC1
forming a core transcriptional feedback loop also in
M. polymorpha
.