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Plant science

Leaf veins share the time of day

Nature volume 515, pages 352–353 (2014)Cite this article

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Techniques for isolating and analysing leaf cell types have now been developed, leading to the discovery that circadian clocks in the plant vasculature communicate with and regulate clocks in neighbouring cells. See Letter p.419

The flowering plants in our gardens and in the countryside provide us with a colourful landscape, and are often thought of as nothing more than a dormant backdrop to our lives. But beneath their attractive exteriors, plants are capable of complex behaviour, such as measuring time. In this issue, Endo et al.1 (page 419) identify circadian clocks in leaf veins that signal to neighbouring cells — an indication that plant circadian clocks might be organized into a hierarchical system.

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Figure 1: Time for a talk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. María C. Martí and Alex A. R. Webb are in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.,

    María C. Martí & Alex A. R. Webb

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  1. María C. Martí
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  2. Alex A. R. Webb
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Correspondence to Alex A. R. Webb.

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Martí, M., Webb, A. Leaf veins share the time of day. Nature 515, 352–353 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13936

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