A review on modeling approaches for the transcriptional regulatory network intricacies of circadian clock genes in plants.

Abstract

Main conclusion: This review highlights the diverse modeling approaches essential for understanding the dynamics of plant circadian clock genes, which are key to optimizing plant growth, development, and resilience to environmental stress. The circadian clock in plants is a complex system governed by intricate transcriptional regulatory networks that orchestrate gene expression in response to environmental cues. These networks are crucial for understanding plant adaptation to daily changes and optimizing growth. This review provides a comprehensive account of various modeling approaches used to study plants' transcriptional regulatory network of circadian clock genes. Here, we review different computational methodologies like ordinary differential equation-based approaches, stochastic models, and spatial techniques that can be evaluated on their ability to capture the dynamics, variability, and interactions inherent to the circadian clock system. Moreover, the circadian clock's responsiveness to environmental cues, such as light, temperature, and other stressors plays a pivotal role in ensuring plant development. The modeling approaches must consider environmental factors influencing the transcriptional regulatory networks, which potentially alter the clock's phase, amplitude, and photoperiod. These adaptations are critical for plant survival, as they align physiological processes with specific hours of the day, enhancing resource use efficiency, and stress resilience. We highlight the respective strengths and limitations of different models emphasizing the importance of an integrative approach that combines multiple techniques which capture the essence of interactions of circadian clock components and their implications for plant growth, development and survival.