Project description:The circadian system produces ~24-hr oscillations in behavioral and physiological processes to ensure that they occur at optimal times of day and in the correct temporal order. At its core, the circadian system is composed of dedicated central clock neurons that keep time through a cell-autonomous molecular clock. To produce rhythmic behaviors, time-of-day information generated by clock neurons must be transmitted across output pathways to regulate the downstream neuronal populations that control the relevant behaviors. An understanding of the manner through which the circadian system enacts behavioral rhythms therefore requires the identification of the cells and molecules that make up the output pathways. To that end, we recently characterized the Drosophila pars intercerebralis (PI) as a major circadian output center that lies downstream of central clock neurons in a circuit controlling rest:activity rhythms. We have conducted single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) to identify potential circadian output genes expressed by PI cells, and used cell-specific RNA interference (RNAi) to knock down expression of ~40 of these candidate genes selectively within subsets of PI cells. We demonstrate that knockdown of the slowpoke (slo) potassium channel in PI cells reliably decreases circadian rest:activity rhythm strength. Interestingly, slo mutants have previously been shown to have aberrant rest:activity rhythms, in part due to a necessary function of slo within central clock cells. However, rescue of slo in all clock cells does not fully reestablish behavioral rhythms, indicating that expression in non-clock neurons is also necessary. Our results demonstrate that slo exerts its effects in multiple components of the circadian circuit, including PI output cells in addition to clock neurons, and we hypothesize that it does so by contributing to the generation of daily neuronal activity rhythms that allow for the propagation of circadian information throughout output circuits.
Project description:Circadian rhythms are cell-autonomous biological oscillations with a period of about 24 hours. Current models propose that transcriptional feedback loops are the principal mechanism for the generation of circadian oscillations. In these models, Drosophila S2 cells are generally regarded as ‘non-rhythmic’ cells, as they do not express several canonical circadian components. Using an unbiased multi-omics approach, we made the surprising discovery that Drosophila S2 cells do in fact display widespread daily rhythms. Transcriptomics and proteomics analyses revealed that hundreds of genes and their products are rhythmically expressed in a 24-hour cycle. Metabolomics analyses extended these findings and illustrated that central carbon metabolism and amino acid metabolism are the main pathways regulated in a rhythmic fashion. We thus demonstrate that daily genome-wide oscillations, coupled to metabolic cycles, take place in eukaryotic cells without the contribution of known circadian regulators.
Project description:The circadian clock regulates behavioural and physiological processes in a 24-h cycle. The nuclear receptors REV-ERBa and REV-ERBb are involved in the cell-autonomous circadian transcriptional/translational feedback loops as transcriptional repressors. A number of studies have also demonstrated a pivotal role of REV-ERBs in regulation of metabolic, neuronal, and inflammatory functions including bile acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, and production of inflammatory cytokines. Given the multifunctional role of REV-ERBs, it is important to elucidate the mechanism through which REV-ERBs exert their functions. To this end, we established a Rev-erba/Rev-erbb double-knockout mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell model and analyzed the circadian clock and clock-controlled output gene expressions. A comprehensive mRNA-seq analysis revealed that the complete knockout of both Rev-erba and Rev-erbb does not abrogate expression rhythms of E-box-regulated core clock genes but drastically changes a diverse set of other rhythmically-expressed output genes. Of note, REV-ERBa/b deficiency does not compromise circadian expression rhythms of PER2, while REV-ERB target genes, Bmal1 and Npas2, are significantly upregulated. This study emphasizes REV-ERBs function to form an essential link between the circadian clock and a wide variety of cellular physiological functions.
Project description:Using chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP) combined with deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) we obtained a time resolved and genome-wide map of BMAL1 binding in mouse liver, which allowed to identify over two thousand binding sites with peak binding narrowly centered around Zeitgeber time (ZT) 6. Annotation of BMAL1 targets confirms carbohydrate and lipid metabolism as the major output of the circadian clock in mouse liver. Moreover, transcription regulators are largely overrepresented, several of which also exhibit circadian activity. Genes of the core circadian oscillator stand out as strongly bound, often at promoter and distal sites. Genomic sequence analysis of the sites identified E- boxes and tandem E1-E2 consensus elements. Electromobility shift assays (EMSA) showed that E1-E2 sites are bound by a dimer of BMAL1/CLOCK heterodimers with a spacing-dependent cooperative interaction that was further validated in transactivation assays. BMAL1 target genes showed cyclic mRNA expression profiles with a phase distribution centered at ZT10. Importantly, sites with E1-E2 elements showed tighter phases both in binding and mRNA accumulation. Finally, comparing the temporal accumulation of precursor mRNA and mature mRNA helped distinguish direct BMAL1 targets from targets with more complex regulation, and showed how transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation contribute differentially to circadian expression phase. Together, our analysis of a dynamic protein-DNA interactome uncovered how genes of the core circadian oscillator are wired together and drive phase-specific circadian output programs in a complex tissue. ChIP-Seq of BMAL1 in mouse liver during one circadian cycle at 4 hour time resolution presented in this Series (GSE26602). mRNA profiling data used in this study are already published (Kornmann et al, PLoS Biol 2007) and have been deposited on ArrayExpress repository (accession number: E-MEXP-842).
Project description:RNA profiling of Drosophila sensory organs precursor cells (SOP/pI) compared with neighbouring epithelial cells. Two-condition experiment, SOP/pI vs. epithelial cells from animals at similar developmental age.
Project description:Circadian clocks have evolved as time-measuring molecular devices to help organisms adapt their physiology to daily changes in light and temperature. Cycling transcription has been long hypothesized to account for the wealth of rhythmic protein abundance. However, cyclic degradation signals such as ubiquitylation could shape the rhythmic protein landscape as well. In order to document the circadian ubiquitylated proteome of Drosophila melanogaster, we took advantage of a new means of Ub purification based on in vivo biotinylation of AviTag-tagged ubiquitin by the BirA protein, the bioUb system. NeutrAvidin-bound fractions of head lysates were collected at four circadian times six hours apart and proteins were identified and quantified using a proteomic-based approach.
Project description:Circadian clocks coordinate time-of-day specific metabolic and physiological processes to maximize performance and fitness. In addition to light, which is considered the strongest time cue to entrain animal circadian clocks, metabolic input has emerged as an important signal for clock modulation and entrainment, especially in peripheral clocks. Circadian clock proteins have been to be substrates of O-GlcNAcylation, a nutrient sensitive post-translational modification (PTM), and the interplay between clock protein O-GlcNAcylation and other PTMs, like phosphorylation, is expected to facilitate the regulation of circadian physiology by metabolic signals. Here, we used mass spectrometry proteomics to identify PTMs on PERIOD, the key biochemical timer of the Drosophila clock, over the circadian cycle.
Project description:Using chromatin immuno-precipitation (ChIP) combined with deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) we obtained a time resolved and genome-wide map of BMAL1 binding in mouse liver, which allowed to identify over two thousand binding sites with peak binding narrowly centered around Zeitgeber time (ZT) 6. Annotation of BMAL1 targets confirms carbohydrate and lipid metabolism as the major output of the circadian clock in mouse liver. Moreover, transcription regulators are largely overrepresented, several of which also exhibit circadian activity. Genes of the core circadian oscillator stand out as strongly bound, often at promoter and distal sites. Genomic sequence analysis of the sites identified E- boxes and tandem E1-E2 consensus elements. Electromobility shift assays (EMSA) showed that E1-E2 sites are bound by a dimer of BMAL1/CLOCK heterodimers with a spacing-dependent cooperative interaction that was further validated in transactivation assays. BMAL1 target genes showed cyclic mRNA expression profiles with a phase distribution centered at ZT10. Importantly, sites with E1-E2 elements showed tighter phases both in binding and mRNA accumulation. Finally, comparing the temporal accumulation of precursor mRNA and mature mRNA helped distinguish direct BMAL1 targets from targets with more complex regulation, and showed how transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation contribute differentially to circadian expression phase. Together, our analysis of a dynamic protein-DNA interactome uncovered how genes of the core circadian oscillator are wired together and drive phase-specific circadian output programs in a complex tissue.
Project description:A subset of post-infection irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) patients have elevated, or high fecal proteolytic activity (PA). Fecal PA has been shown to correlate with increased symptom severity as well as lower quality of life scores, increased fecal output and increased intestinal permeability. To address the underlying mechanisms of barrier disruption as a consequence of high fecal PA, colonic biopsies were collected from healthy individuals PI-IBS patients (n=11). Individuals diagnosed with PI-IBS were further divided in to 2 subgroups, high PA and low PA as defined by the PA in matched fecal samples. RNA was extracted from the biopsies for bulk RNA sequencing to understand transcriptional differences between healthy and high PA PI-IBS patients as well as high PA and Low PA PI-IBS patients.