General sessions3E-05 Functional characterization of CCA1/LHY homolog genes, PpCCA1a and PpCCA1b, in the moss Physcomitrella patens

The endogenous circadian clock functions in order to adapt to the day/night alterations of environmental stimuli. Many “clock genes”, encoding components of the clock machinery, have been cloned and they are currently intensively studied. CCA1 and its paralog LHY encode single-myb transcription factors, which were identified as clock genes in the model dicot Arabidopsis thaliana. We report here the isolation of CCA1/LHY homologs genes, PpCCA1a and PpCCA1b, from the moss Physcomitrella patens, and the result of their functional analysis by gene disruption technique. Characterization of clock genes from various plant species will shed light on the origin and evolution of the circadian systems in the plant kingdom.