Circadian Clock Mutants in Arabidopsis Identified by Luciferase Imaging

The cycling bioluminescence of Arabidopsis plants carrying a firefly luciferase fusion construct was used to identify mutant individuals with aberrant cycling patterns. Both long- and short-period mutants were recovered. A semidominant short-period mutation, timing of CAB expression (toc1), was mapped to chromosome 5. The toc1 mutation shortens the period of two distinct circadian rhythms, the expression of chlorophyll a/b-binding protein (CAB) genes and the movements of primary leaves, although toc1 mutants do not show extensive pleiotropy for other phenotypes.