PhD Candidate University of California Riverside Riverside, California
Body of Abstract: Circadian Regulation of Temperature Response in Arabidopsis
The circadian clock regulates most aspects of growth and development including photosynthesis, flowering, morphogenesis, and response to abiotic stress. How the clock regulates responses to temperature in plants is of utmost importance as the climate continues to change and affect agriculture. Previous studies have identified genes involved in growth that are highly responsive to temperature stress. Transcriptomic analysis in wild-type and circadian clock mutants suggests the response to temperature stress is temporally regulated and implicates a key role for the clock. Experiments are ongoing to understand the functions of these genes in temperature tolerance and how they impact growth depending on time of day. The long-term goal of this research is to better understand temperature regulating clock networks to bioengineer plants to be more resilient to fluctuations in temperature depending on time of day.