Plant nutrient regulator identified

New York -- A U.S.-led team of scientists studying the plant Arabidopsis has found the gene controlling the plant's biological clock is sensitive to nutrient status.

Using a systems biological analysis of genome-scale data from the model plant Arabidopsis, the team of U.S. and Chilean researchers said their finding is derived from multi-network analysis of Arabidopsis genomic data and has been validated experimentally.

The study by researchers at New York University's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, Chile's Pontifical Catholic University, Dartmouth College, and Cold Spring Harbor Labs provides evidence that plant nutrition, similar to animal nutrition, is tightly linked to circadian clock functions as scientists have previously hypothesized.

The scientists said their findings also shed light on how nutrients affect the molecular networks controlling plant growth and development in response to nutrient sensing.

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.