Dardente Hugues, Mendoza Jorge, Fustin Jean-Michel, Challet Etienne, Hazlerigg David G
School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2008;3(10):e3530. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003530. Epub 2008 Oct 27.
In mammals, the circadian clock relies on interlocked feedback loops involving clock genes and their protein products. Post-translational modifications control intracellular trafficking, functionality and degradation of clock proteins and are keys to the functioning of the clock as recently exemplified for the F-Box protein Fbxl3. The SCF(Fbxl3) complex directs degradation of CRY1/2 proteins and Fbxl3 murine mutants have a slower clock. To assess whether the role of Fbxl3 is phylogenetically conserved, we investigated its function in the sheep, a diurnal ungulate. Our data show that Fbxl3 function is conserved and further reveal that its closest homologue, the F-Box protein Fbxl21, also binds to CRY1 which impairs its repressive action towards the transcriptional activators CLOCK/BMAL1. However, while Fbxl3 appears to be ubiquitously expressed, Fbxl21 expression is tissue-specific. Furthermore, and in sharp contrast with Fbxl3, Fbxl21 is highly expressed within the suprachiasmatic nuclei, site of the master clock, where it displays marked circadian oscillations apparently driven by members of the PAR-bZIP family. Finally, for both Fbxl3 and Fbxl21 we identified and functionally characterized novel splice-variants, which might reduce CRY1 proteasomal degradation dependent on cell context. Altogether, these data establish Fbxl21 as a novel circadian clock-controlled gene that plays a specific role within the mammalian circadian pacemaker.
在哺乳动物中,昼夜节律时钟依赖于涉及时钟基因及其蛋白质产物的连锁反馈环。翻译后修饰控制时钟蛋白的细胞内运输、功能和降解,并且是时钟功能的关键,最近F-Box蛋白Fbxl3就例证了这一点。SCF(Fbxl3)复合物指导CRY1/2蛋白的降解,Fbxl3小鼠突变体的时钟较慢。为了评估Fbxl3的作用在系统发育上是否保守,我们研究了它在绵羊(一种昼行性有蹄类动物)中的功能。我们的数据表明Fbxl3的功能是保守的,并且进一步揭示其最接近的同源物,F-Box蛋白Fbxl21,也与CRY1结合,这损害了其对转录激活因子CLOCK/BMAL1的抑制作用。然而,虽然Fbxl3似乎在全身表达,但Fbxl21的表达具有组织特异性。此外,与Fbxl3形成鲜明对比的是,Fbxl21在主时钟所在的视交叉上核中高度表达,在那里它表现出明显由PAR-bZIP家族成员驱动的显著昼夜节律振荡。最后,对于Fbxl3和Fbxl21,我们都鉴定并功能表征了新的剪接变体,它们可能根据细胞环境减少CRY1的蛋白酶体降解。总之,这些数据将Fbxl21确立为一个新的昼夜节律时钟控制基因,它在哺乳动物昼夜节律起搏器中发挥特定作用。