Cho Eunjoo, Lee Euna, Kim Eun Young
Department of Brain Science and Chronic Inflammatory Disease Research Center, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon 16499, Korea.
Chronic Inflammatory Disease Research Center and BK21 Plus program, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon 16499, Korea.
BMB Rep. 2016 Nov;49(11):587-589. doi: 10.5483/bmbrep.2016.49.11.178.
The circadian clock system enables organisms to anticipate the rhythmic environmental changes and to manifest behavior and physiology at advantageous times of the day. Transcriptional/translational feedback loop (TTFL) is the basic feature of the eukaryotic circadian clock and is based on the rhythmic association of circadian transcriptional activator and repressor. In Drosophila, repression of dCLOCK/CYCLE (dCLK/CYC) mediated transcription by PERIOD (PER) is critical for inducing circadian rhythms of gene expression. Pacemaker neurons in the brain control specific circadian behaviors upon environmental timing cues such as light and temperature cycle. We show here that amino acids 657-707 of dCLK are important for the transcriptional activation and the association with PER both in vitro and in vivo. Flies expressing dCLK lacking AA657-707 in Clkout genetic background, homologous to the mouse Clock allele where exon 19 region is deleted, display pacemaker-neuron-dependent perturbation of the molecular clockwork. The molecular rhythms in light-cycle-sensitive pacemaker neurons such as ventral lateral neurons (LNvs) were significantly disrupted, but those in temperature-cycle-sensitive pacemaker neurons such as dorsal neurons (DNs) were robust. Our results suggest that the dCLK-controlled TTFL diversify in a pacemaker-neuron-dependent manner which may contribute to specific functions such as different sensitivities to entraining cues. [BMB Reports 2016; 49(11): 587-589].
昼夜节律时钟系统使生物体能够预测有节奏的环境变化,并在一天中的有利时间表现出行为和生理活动。转录/翻译反馈环(TTFL)是真核生物昼夜节律时钟的基本特征,它基于昼夜节律转录激活因子和抑制因子的节律性结合。在果蝇中,周期蛋白(PER)对由昼夜节律生物钟蛋白(dCLOCK)/周期蛋白(CYC)(dCLK/CYC)介导的转录的抑制对于诱导基因表达的昼夜节律至关重要。大脑中的起搏器神经元根据环境时间线索(如光和温度周期)控制特定的昼夜行为。我们在此表明,dCLK的657 - 707位氨基酸对于体外和体内的转录激活以及与PER的结合都很重要。在Clkout遗传背景下表达缺失AA657 - 707的dCLK的果蝇,与小鼠Clock等位基因(其中第19外显子区域被删除)同源,表现出起搏器神经元依赖的分子时钟机制扰动。光周期敏感的起搏器神经元(如腹侧外侧神经元(LNvs))中的分子节律被显著破坏,但温度周期敏感的起搏器神经元(如背侧神经元(DNs))中的分子节律则很稳定。我们的结果表明,dCLK控制的TTFL以起搏器神经元依赖的方式多样化,这可能有助于特定功能,如对同步线索的不同敏感性。[《BMB报告》2016年;49(11):587 - 589]