Temperature-dependent resetting of the molecular circadian oscillator in Drosophila

Goda, Tadahiro, Sharp, Brandi and Wijnen, Herman (2014) Temperature-dependent resetting of the molecular circadian oscillator in Drosophila. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281 (1793). (doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1714). (PMID:25165772)

Abstract

Circadian clocks responsible for daily time keeping in a wide range of organisms synchronize to daily temperature cycles via pathways that remain poorly understood. To address this problem from the perspective of the molecular oscillator, we monitored temperature-dependent resetting of four of its core components in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster: the transcripts and proteins for the clock genes period (per) and timeless (tim). The molecular circadian cycle in adult heads exhibited parallel responses to temperature-mediated resetting at the levels of per transcript, tim transcript and TIM protein. Early phase adjustment specific to per transcript rhythms was explained by clock-independent temperature-driven transcription of per. The cold-induced expression of Drosophila per contrasts with the previously reported heat-induced regulation of mammalian Period 2. An altered and more readily re-entrainable temperature-synchronized circadian oscillator that featured temperature-driven per transcript rhythms and phase-shifted TIM and PER protein rhythms was found for flies of the 'Tim 4' genotype, which lacked daily tim transcript oscillations but maintained post-transcriptional temperature entrainment of tim expression. The accelerated molecular and behavioural temperature entrainment observed for Tim 4 flies indicates that clock-controlled tim expression constrains the rate of temperature cycle-mediated circadian resetting

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Herman Wijnen

Download statistics