Anver, Shajahan;
(2013)
XAP5 CIRCADIAN TIME KEEPER (XCT): A Conserved Chromatin Regulator that Affects Growth, Development and Stress Response.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), University of California Davis.
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Abstract
Circadian systems are widespread in nature and enable the organisms that posses these endogenous systems to anticipate environmental changes and therefore allow them to take full advantage of their phenotypic/developmental plasticity. Since current plant clock models are not complete enough to explain the roles of the circadian clock, novel clock components need to be identified. XAP5 CIRCADIAN TIME KEEPER (XCT) is potentially one such protein. I show that XCT is required for a fully functional clock, proper growth and development, and stress responses especially under temperature stress. XCT is well conserved in eukaryotes and I demonstrate that it is functionally conserved between Arabidopsis thaliana and Schizosaccharomyces pombe at the physiological and molecular levels. I therefore functionally characterized the XCT ortholog Xap5 in fission yeast and demonstrate that it is a novel chromatin regulatory protein functioning with multiple known chromatin regulators including the H2A variant H2A.Z. Chromatin regulation plays an important role in regulating the expression of stimulus-responsive genes to which category many developmental, circadian and temperatureresponsive genes belong. Because of XCT’s potential involvement in the circadian clock, chromatin modifications and plant growth-development-stress responses, I conclude that XCT is a conserved novel protein which connects the worlds of clock and chromatin modifications both to each other and to growth, development and stress response pathways.
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