Phototropins do not alter accumulation of evening-phased circadian transcripts under blue light.

The circadian system induces rhythmic variation in a suite of biochemical and physiological processes that serves to optimise plant growth in diel cycles. To be of greatest utility, these rhythmic behaviours are coordinated with regular environmental changes such as the rising and setting of the sun. Photoreceptors, and metabolites produced during photosynthesis, act to synchronise the internal timing mechanism with lighting cues. We have recently shown that phototropins help maintain robust rhythms of photosynthetic operating efficiency (?PSII or Fq'/Fm') under blue light, although rhythmic accumulation of morning-phased circadian transcripts in the nucleus was unaffected. Here we report that evening-phased nuclear clock transcripts were also unaffected. We also observe that rhythms of nuclear clock transcript accumulation are maintained in phototropin mutant plants under a fluctuating lighting regime that induced a loss of Fq'/Fm' rhythms.