Abstract
The model plant Arabidopsis has provided valuable information about genes and genetic interactions involved in the functions of circadian clock. We have reported that a family of Pseudo-Response Regulators (PRRs) plays important role for the Arabidopsis clock. Other representative components of Arabidopsis clock are CCA1/LHY, ZTL, ELF3/4, GI and LUX. Based on these, the completion of genome sequencing of several other higher plants, such as rice, now make it possible to verify the universal molecular mechanism underlying the circadian clock among higher plants. Here, we carried out comparative analyses as to such clock components between rice and Arabidopsis, and identified and characterized rice clock-associated genes (e.g. OsPRRs, OsCCA1, OsZTL1, and OsLUX). These results suggest that most of the Arabidopsis major clock-associated components are highly conserved also in rice.
