Breeding on Time: Plant Chronobiology in the Face of Climate Change

Abstract

When considering the future of agriculture, one envisions the effects of climate crisis placing unprecedented pressure on our food systems. Temperature fluctuations are expected to reach extremes; droughts, floods and severe weather events occurring more often. Overall, environmental signals will become less predictable, less reliable. Plants have highly accurate environmental sensing and signalling mechanisms, allowing them to predict, adjust, and acclimate to diverse environmental cues. In crops, these systems will be key to adjusting to the conditions imposed by the climate crisis. Of these, the circadian clock plays two key complementary roles: first, it is entrained by environmental signals such as light and temperature, which reset its phase to maintain daily alignment with the external environment; second, it gates biological processes including flowering, growth, and stress responses to specific times of day or season, optimising them according to predictable environmental cycles. Both functions directly correlate with fitness and yield, and represent promising but underexplored targets for developing climate-resilient crops. In this review, we compile current knowledge at the intersection of circadian clocks and environmental responses, namely light and temperature sensing and signalling mechanisms in model and non-model species. In addition, we identify knowledge gaps and describe the potential for plant chronobiology findings to be applied in breeding programmes to ultimately aid the development of climate-resilient crops.