A modern circadian clock in the common angiosperm ancestor of monocots and eudicots

Abstract

Abstract The circadian clock enhances fitness through temporal organization of plant gene expression, metabolism and physiology. Two recent studies, one in BMC Evolutionary Biology, demonstrate through phylogenetic analysis of the CCA1/LHY and TOC1/PRR gene families that the common ancestor of monocots and eudicots had components sufficient to construct a circadian clock consisting of multiple interlocked feedback loops. See research article http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/126