Global Mapping at the Core of the Arabidopsis Circadian Clock Defines the Network Structure of the Oscillator

In many organisms, the circadian clock is composed of functionally coupled morning and evening oscillators that regulate the bouts of dawn and dusk activity. In Arabidopsis, oscillator coupling relies on a core loop in which the evening oscillator component TOC1 was proposed to activate a subset of morning-expressed oscillator genes. Our systems-biological approach overturns the current view of the Arabidopsis circadian clock showing that TOC1 does not function as an activator but as a timely-controlled general repressor of morning and evening oscillator components. Repression occurs through rhythmic binding to the promoters of all oscillator genes, suggesting a previously unexpected direct connection between the morning and evening loops. Examination of TOC1 genome-wide binding using TOC1 Minigene (TMG) seedlings expressing the genomic fragment of TOC1 fused to the Yellow Fluorescent Protein in a toc1-2 mutant background (TMG-YFP/toc1-2 seedlings) grown under LD cycles (12h light:12h dark).