Open AccessMultiple metals influence distinct properties of the Arabidopsis circadian clock
Author(s) -
Jessica Hargreaves,
Rachael Oakenfull,
Amanda M Davis,
Freya Pullen,
Marina I. Knight,
Jonathan W. Pitchford,
Seth J Davis
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0258374
Subject(s) - circadian rhythm , circadian clock , organism , biology , biological system , arabidopsis , chronobiology , period length , range (aeronautics) , computational biology , endogeny , function (biology) , rhythm , evolutionary biology , neuroscience , genetics , mathematics , biochemistry , physics , materials science , discrete mathematics , gene , mutant , composite material , acoustics
Circadian rhythms coordinate endogenous events with external signals, and are essential to biological function. When environmental contaminants affect these rhythms, the organism may experience fitness consequences such as reduced growth or increased susceptibility to pathogens. In their natural environment plants may be exposed to a wide range of industrial and agricultural soil pollutants. Here, we investigate how the addition of various metal salts to the root-interaction environment can impact rhythms, measured via the promoter:luciferase system. The consequences of these environmental changes were found to be varied and complex. Therefore, in addition to traditional Fourier-based analyses, we additionally apply novel wavelet-based spectral hypothesis testing and clustering methodologies to organize and understand the data. We are able to classify broad sets of responses to these metal salts, including those that increase, and those that decrease, the period, or which induce a lack of precision or disrupt any meaningful periodicity. Our methods are general, and may be applied to discover common responses and hidden structures within a wide range of biological time series data.