Proteins found in a CikA interaction assay link the circadian clock, metabolism, and cell division in Synechococcus elongatus.

ABSTRACT: Diverse organisms time their cellular activities to occur at distinct phases of Earth's solar day, not through the direct regulation of these processes by light and darkness but rather through the use of an internal biological (circadian) clock that is synchronized with the external cycle. Input pathways serve as mechanisms to transduce external cues to a circadian oscillator to maintain synchrony between this internal oscillation and the environment. The circadian input pathway in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 requires the kinase CikA. A cikA null mutant exhibits a short circadian period, the inability to reset its clock in response to pulses of darkness, and a defect in cell division. Although CikA is copurified with the Kai proteins that constitute the circadian ce

SUBMITTER: Mackey SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2395015 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature