Changes in diurnal patterns within the Populus transcriptome and metabolome in response to photoperiod variation

Changes in seasonal photoperiod provides an important environmental signal that affects the timing of winter dormancy in perennial, deciduous, temperate tree species, such as hybrid aspen (Populus tremula x Populus tremuloides). In this species, growth cessation, cold acclimation and dormancy are induced in the autumn by the detection of day-length shortening that occurs at a given critical day length. Important components in the detection of such day-length changes are photoreceptors and the circadian clock, and many plant responses at both the gene regulation and metabolite levels are expected to be diurnal. To directly examine this expectation and study components in these events, here we report transcriptomic and metabolomic responses to a change in photoperiod from long to short days in hybrid aspen. We found about 16% of genes represented on the arrays to be diurnally regulated, as assessed by our pre-defined criteria. Furthermore, several of these genes were involved in circadian-associated processes, including photosynthesis and primary and secondary metabolism. Metabolites affected by the change in photoperiod were mostly involved in carbon metabolism. Taken together, we have thus established a molecular catalog of events that precede a response to winter.