Week 6 Flashcards
(137 cards)
What environmental conditons vary over 24 hours?
Temperature
Light intensity
Humidity
Predator behaviour
What is the example of extreme day-night temperature change?
57 degrees c
Montana, 1972 -48 to 9
What is a more typical day-night fluctuation?
10 degrees celcius each day (seen in central japan)
What is the mechanism for circadian clocks?
Biological oscillators with a rough 24 hour period
What did they find when the kept mice in constant darkness?
Continous darkness rhythms persist but with a 23 hour period
Most wheel running at night
When was the circadian rhythm first discorvered in plants?
1729 by Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan in Mimosa pudica
What is the stages of time course analysis?
First plant is grown in cycles of light and dark (this can be drawn in a graph with light and time on x axis and biological process on the y)
What happens to a plant grown in light and dark cycles when moved into continous light?
In constant light and temperature conditions the circadian rhythm will form whats called a ‘free run’
What is ‘free run’?
Circadian rhythm continous but elevated graph ie still running but with a peak and trough
The period that would have been night is subjective night
The period that would have been day is subjective day
What is a period?
Time to complete one full cycle
What is a phase?
The time at which a particular point of cycle occurs (e.g peak)
What is the amplitude?
The displacement of the oscillation from the centre point
What is the advantage of a functioning circadian clock?
Plants with functioning circadian clock grow larger
What plant activities are controlled by the circadian clocks?
In Arabidopsis thaliana around 30% of genes oscillates with a 24 period
Stomatal opening and closing are under the controle of the circadian oscillator
Hypocotyl elongation is clock controlled
Photoperiod is one of the environmental factors controlling flowering
In competition experiments what are the benefits of functioning circadian clock?
Higher:
Survivial
Biomass (dry and fresh rate)
Chlorophyll content
What was the experiement and result of changing the circadian cock period?
toc1-2 (20 hour day) ztl-27 (28 hour day)
toc1-2 was bigger in the 20 hour day compared to other plant and the same plant in the 28 hour day
ztl-27 was bigger in the 28 hour day compared to other plant and the same plant in the 20 hour day
What is the circadian oscillator?
Generate a rhythm with a ~24 hour period within the cell
What is the entrainment pathways?
Synchronise the oscillator with the external time of day so that the clock stays accurate
What is the output pathway?
Communicate temporal information form the oscillator to other parts of the cell
What is the circadian gating?
Adjust the sensitivity of entrainment and output pathways depending on the time of day
What is the pathway of the circadian system of plants?
Envrironemental inputs –> Entrainment pathways –> Circadian oscillator –> Output pathways –> Rhythms in transctiption, physiology and biochemistry
What is the system that oscillates for the circadian clock?
Transcription-translation feedback loop
What is the rough transcription-translation feedback loop?
Protein encoded by Gene A activates Gene B
Protein encoded by Gene B supresses Gene A
What are the key points of a simple biological oscillator?
Reciprocal feedback loop
Negative feedback step
Speed of biochemical reaction adds a rate constant