Superoxide is promoted by sucrose and affects amplitude of circadian rhythms in the evening

Plants must coordinate photosynthetic metabolism with the daily environment and adapt rhythmic physiology and development to match carbon availability. Circadian clocks drive biological rhythms which adjust to environmental cues. Products of photosynthetic metabolism, including sugars and reactive oxygen species (ROS), are closely associated with the plant circadian clock and sugars have been shown to provide metabolic feedback to the circadian oscillator. Here, we report a comprehensive sugar-regulated transcriptome of Arabidopsis and identify genes associated with redox and ROS processes as a prominent feature of the transcriptional response. We show that sucrose increases levels of superoxide (O₂^–) which is required for transcriptional and growth responses to sugar. We identify circadian rhythms of O₂^–-regulated transcripts which are phased around dusk and find that O₂^– is required for sucrose to promote expression of TIMING OF CAB1 (TOC1) in the evening. Our data reveal a role for O₂^– as a metabolic signal affecting transcriptional control of the circadian oscillator in Arabidopsis.