The brown clock: circadian rhythms in stramenopiles

Circadian clocks allow organisms to anticipate environmental changes associated with the diurnal light/dark cycle. Circadian oscillators have been described in plants and green algae, cyanobacteria, animals and fungi, however, little is known about the circadian clocks of photosynthetic eukaryotes outside the green lineage. Stramenopiles are a diverse group of secondary endosymbionts whose plastid originated from a red alga. Photosynthetic stramenopiles, which include diatoms and brown algae, play key roles in biogeochemical cycles and are important components of marine ecosystems. Genome annotation efforts indicated the presence of a novel type of oscillator in these organisms and the first circadian clock component in a stramenopile has been recently discovered. This review summarizes the phenotypic characterization of circadian rhythms in stramenopiles and current efforts to determine the mechanisms of this 'brown clock'. The elucidation of this brown clock will enable a deeper understanding of the role of self-sustained oscillations in the adaptation to life in marine environments.