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Electronic Letters to:

BOTANICAL BRIEFING:
CHRISTOPH PLIETH
Calcium: Just Another Regulator in the Machinery of Life?
Ann Bot 2005; 96: 1-8 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read eLetter] Circadian Calcium Oscillations and Reactive Oxygen Species
Alex AR Webb   (27 February 2006)

Circadian Calcium Oscillations and Reactive Oxygen Species 27 February 2006
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Alex AR Webb,
Lecturer
University of Cambridge CB2 3EA

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Re: Circadian Calcium Oscillations and Reactive Oxygen Species

In the section entitled 'All that glisters is not gold' the author questions whether circadian oscillations of cytosolic free calcium reported by Love et al, 2004 actually occur. The author suggests that instead there are oscillations of reactive oxygen species and it was these that we detected using coelenterazine to reconstitute the functional calcium reporter, aequorin. I am happy to confirm that this is not the case. An important control is described in Love et al, 2004 but ignored by the author, in which untransformed plants were treated with coelenterazine and no oscillations of bioluminescence were detected. The requirement for functional aequorin for circadian rhythms of bioluminescence demonstrated that we were measuring circadian oscillations of cytosolic free calcium.

Conflict of Interest:

None declared