A study led by Melbourne University has established how plants use their
metabolism to tell time and know when to grow. This discovery could help
in growing crops in different environments, including different seasons,
latitudes, or even in artificial environments and vertical gardens.

The study led by Dr. Mike Haydon, from the School of BioSciences,
details how plants use their metabolism to sense time at dusk and help
conserve energy produced from sunlight during the day. Dr. Haydon said
that while plants do not sleep as humans do, their metabolism adjusts
during the night to conserve energy for the following day for
photosynthesis.

"We have now found that a different metabolic signal, called superoxide,
acts at dusk and changes the activity of circadian clock genes in the
evening," said Dr. Haydon. He added that they also found that this
signal affects plant growth, and they believe this signal could be
providing information to the plant about the metabolic activity as the
sun sets.

Plant clock could be the key to producing more food for the world
(unimelb.edu.au)
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