Plants have served as a preeminent study system for photoperiodism due to their propensity to flower in concordance with the seasons. A nearly singular focus on understanding photoperiodic flowering has prevented the discovery of other photoperiod measuring systems necessary for vegetative health. Here, we use bioinformatics to identify photoperiod-induced genes in Arabidopsis. We show that one, PP2-A13, is expressed exclusively in, and required for, plant fitness in short, winter-like photoperiods. We create a real-time photoperiod reporter, using the PP2-A13 promoter driving luciferase, and show that photoperiodic regulation is independent of the canonical CO/FT mechanism for photoperiodic flowering. We then reveal that photosynthesis combines with circadian-clock-controlled starch production to regulate cellular sucrose levels to control photoperiodic expression of PP2-A13. This work demonstrates the existence of a photoperiod measuring system housed in the metabolic network of plants that functions to control seasonal cellular health.

由于植物的开花倾向与季节一致，因此植物已成为光周期现象的卓越研究系统。对了解光周期开花的几乎单一关注阻止了发现植物健康所必需的其他光周期测量系统。在这里，我们使用生物信息学来识别拟南芥中光周期诱导的基因。我们表明，PP2-A13仅在短的类似冬季的光周期中的植物适应性中表达，并且是植物适应性所必需的。我们使用PP2-A13创建了一个实时光周期报告器启动子驱动荧光素酶，并表明光周期调节独立于光周期开花的典型 CO / FT 机制。然后，我们揭示了光合作用与生物钟控制的淀粉生产相结合，以调节细胞蔗糖水平，从而控制PP2-A13的光周期表达。这项工作证明了存在于植物代谢网络中的光周期测量系统，其功能是控制季节性细胞健康。