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Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night

Photosynthetic starch reserves that accumulate in Arabidopsis leaves during the day decrease approximately linearly with time at night to support metabolism and growth. We find that the rate of decrease is adjusted to accommodate variation in the time of onset of darkness and starch content, such th...

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Autores principales: Scialdone, Antonio, Mugford, Sam T, Feike, Doreen, Skeffington, Alastair, Borrill, Philippa, Graf, Alexander, Smith, Alison M, Howard, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691572/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23805380
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00669
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author Scialdone, Antonio
Mugford, Sam T
Feike, Doreen
Skeffington, Alastair
Borrill, Philippa
Graf, Alexander
Smith, Alison M
Howard, Martin
author_facet Scialdone, Antonio
Mugford, Sam T
Feike, Doreen
Skeffington, Alastair
Borrill, Philippa
Graf, Alexander
Smith, Alison M
Howard, Martin
author_sort Scialdone, Antonio
collection PubMed
description Photosynthetic starch reserves that accumulate in Arabidopsis leaves during the day decrease approximately linearly with time at night to support metabolism and growth. We find that the rate of decrease is adjusted to accommodate variation in the time of onset of darkness and starch content, such that reserves last almost precisely until dawn. Generation of these dynamics therefore requires an arithmetic division computation between the starch content and expected time to dawn. We introduce two novel chemical kinetic models capable of implementing analog arithmetic division. Predictions from the models are successfully tested in plants perturbed by a night-time light period or by mutations in starch degradation pathways. Our experiments indicate which components of the starch degradation apparatus may be important for appropriate arithmetic division. Our results are potentially relevant for any biological system dependent on a food reserve for survival over a predictable time period. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00669.001
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spelling pubmed-36915722013-06-26 Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night Scialdone, Antonio Mugford, Sam T Feike, Doreen Skeffington, Alastair Borrill, Philippa Graf, Alexander Smith, Alison M Howard, Martin eLife Plant Biology Photosynthetic starch reserves that accumulate in Arabidopsis leaves during the day decrease approximately linearly with time at night to support metabolism and growth. We find that the rate of decrease is adjusted to accommodate variation in the time of onset of darkness and starch content, such that reserves last almost precisely until dawn. Generation of these dynamics therefore requires an arithmetic division computation between the starch content and expected time to dawn. We introduce two novel chemical kinetic models capable of implementing analog arithmetic division. Predictions from the models are successfully tested in plants perturbed by a night-time light period or by mutations in starch degradation pathways. Our experiments indicate which components of the starch degradation apparatus may be important for appropriate arithmetic division. Our results are potentially relevant for any biological system dependent on a food reserve for survival over a predictable time period. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00669.001 eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2013-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3691572/ /pubmed/23805380 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00669 Text en Copyright © 2013, Scialdone et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Plant Biology
Scialdone, Antonio
Mugford, Sam T
Feike, Doreen
Skeffington, Alastair
Borrill, Philippa
Graf, Alexander
Smith, Alison M
Howard, Martin
Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title_full Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title_fullStr Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title_full_unstemmed Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title_short Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
title_sort arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night
topic Plant Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691572/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23805380
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00669
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