Disruption of clock function is linked to various metabolic diseases in mammalian models and human health (e.g. Turek et al., 2005; Green et al., 2008; Nedeltcheva and Scheer, 2014; Roenneberg and Merrow, 2016), and antiphasic light and temperature cycles can substantially reduce growth in plants—possibly because changes to the phase and amplitude of rhythmic gene expression disrupt the coordination of growth-related processes (Bours et al., 2013). Here, CLOCK is linked to metabolic disease.