Department of Neurobiology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA.
The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; The Eugene Bell Center, The Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
Curr Biol. 2023 May 22;33(10):1867-1882.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.015. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Organisms living in the intertidal zone are exposed to a particularly challenging environment. In addition to daily changes in light intensity and seasonal changes in photoperiod and weather patterns, they experience dramatic oscillations in environmental conditions due to the tides. To anticipate tides, and thus optimize their behavior and physiology, animals occupying intertidal ecological niches have acquired circatidal clocks. Although the existence of these clocks has long been known, their underlying molecular components have proven difficult to identify, in large part because of the lack of an intertidal model organism amenable to genetic manipulation. In particular, the relationship between the circatidal and circadian molecular clocks, and the possibility of shared genetic components, has been a long-standing question. Here, we introduce the genetically tractable crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis as a system for the study of circatidal rhythms. First, we show that P. hawaiensis exhibits robust 12.4-h rhythms of locomotion that can be entrained to an artificial tidal regimen and are temperature compensated. Using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, we then demonstrate that the core circadian clock gene Bmal1 is required for circatidal rhythms. Our results thus demonstrate that Bmal1 is a molecular link between circatidal and circadian clocks and establish P. hawaiensis as a powerful system to study the molecular mechanisms underlying circatidal rhythms and their entrainment.
生活在潮间带的生物暴露在一个特别具有挑战性的环境中。除了光照强度的日常变化和光周期和天气模式的季节性变化外，它们还经历由于潮汐引起的环境条件的剧烈波动。为了预测潮汐，从而优化它们的行为和生理机能，占据潮间带生态位的动物已经获得了潮汐钟。尽管这些钟的存在早已为人所知，但它们的潜在分子成分一直难以确定，这在很大程度上是由于缺乏适合遗传操作的潮间带模式生物。特别是，潮汐钟和昼夜分子钟之间的关系，以及可能存在共同的遗传成分，一直是一个长期存在的问题。在这里，我们介绍了遗传上易于操作的甲壳类动物 Parhyale hawaiensis，作为研究潮汐节律的系统。首先，我们表明 P. hawaiensis 表现出强烈的 12.4 小时的运动节律，可以被人工潮汐方案和温度补偿所驯化。然后，我们使用 CRISPR-Cas9 基因组编辑技术证明，核心昼夜节律钟基因 Bmal1 是潮汐节律所必需的。我们的结果表明，Bmal1 是潮汐钟和昼夜钟之间的分子联系，并确立了 P. hawaiensis 作为研究潮汐节律及其驯化的分子机制的强大系统。
