The Project
Understanding the biological clock in Arabidopsis thaliana: global approaches to study mechanisms of clock function.
Winner
Dr Paloma Mas
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. CSIC
C/Serrano, 113
Madrid 28006
Spain
Paloma Mas, aged 38, has taken part in a number of research projects on the genetic analysis of circadian rhythms, and has been published widely in leading journals including Science and Nature. After gaining her Ph.D at the University of Murcia in 1997, Mas worked in the US at The Scripps Research Institute for six years before starting her present post as principal investigator at the Consorcio CSIC-IRTA, Instituto de Biología Molecular de Barcelona in 2004.
She said: “I am delighted that the ESF has chosen my project for this generous award. I must now justify the faith in this work by meeting the tough targets I have set and really unravel the mechanisms of biological clocks.”
Provisional Award
€ 1,250,000
Project Description
Many processes in nature oscillate with a precise 24-hour period, relying on endogenous (internal) biochemical clocks that exploit changes in temperature and daylight to maintain such tight synchrony. Past efforts to understand these so-called circadian rhythms have focused on the molecular characterisation of clock components in different biological systems, including the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Yet despite progress on this front, the precise signalling mechanisms involved remain largely uncharted. However it is known that a gene called TOC1 has an essential role at the core of the oscillator in Arabidopsis, following work by Mas among others. This project will take TOC1 as the basis for further study, examining the extent of its global role in the regulation of circadian transcription networks. This will involve chromatin immuno-precipitation* combined with promoter micro-arrays to ascertain regulation of circadian expression. Mas will also focus on TOC1-specific interaction with clock-related proteins, whose role in circadian processes will be characterised further, along with their influence on TOC1 post-transcriptional modification. Then in the final stage, proteomic approaches will be used to examine circadian changes in enzymatic activities via a method based on chemical probes designed to interact with catalytically active enzymes.
The overall impact of the project will be to understand better how the circadian clock controls essential processes in plant development such as flowering and photo-regulation of growth. In the longer term, knowledge gained of clock signalling pathways and circadian processes in Arabidopsis can be extended to animals and humans, as well as to other plants of agronomic interest.
*Immunoprecipitation is a way of extracting specific proteins from a solution by adding a specific antibody that causes them to precipitate. The protein can then be removed by centrifuging and analysed.
