Project description:Cryptochromes were identified in plants and animals where they function as either photoreceptors or circadian clock components. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora, the biological function of cryptochrome has not yet been explored. Here, we demonstrate that Neurospora crassa cryptochrome (Nc cry) is a DASH-type of cryptochrome, capable of binding FAD and MTHF, whose transcript and protein levels are both strongly induced by blue light in a wc-1 dependent manner. Although the Nc cry transcript is circadian-regulated and antiphasic to frq, knockout strains of Nc cry appears to have a normal clock phenotype. Whole genome microarray and RT-QPCR analysis confirm that Nc cry is not involved in the signal transduction of either early or late light responses and seems to have no transcriptional regulatory activity under our laboratory conditions. Our study concludes that the only cryptochrome in Neurospora crassa is dispensable for the well-characterized blue light sensing cascade and is not part of the circadian clock system. Keywords: light response
Project description:The mammalian circadian clock is a molecular oscillator composed of a feedback loop that involves transcriptional activators CLOCK and BMAL1, and repressors Cryptochrome (CRY) and Period (PER). Here we show that a direct CLOCK-BMAL1 target gene, Gm129, is a novel regulator of the feedback loop. ChIP analysis revealed that the CLOCK:BMAL1:CRY1 complex strongly occupies the promoter region of Gm129. Both mRNA and protein levels of GM129 exhibit high amplitude circadian oscillations in mouse liver, and Gm129 gene encodes a nuclear-localized protein that directly interacts with BMAL1 and represses CLOCK:BMAL1 activity. In vitro and in vivo protein-DNA interaction results demonstrate that, like CRY1, GM129 functions as a repressor by binding to the CLOCK:BMAL1 complex on DNA. Although Gm129-/- or Cry1-/- Gm129-/- mice retain a robust circadian rhythm, the peaks of Nr1d1 and Dbp mRNAs in liver exhibit significant phase delay compared to control. Our results suggest that, in addition to CRYs and PERs, GM129 protein contributes to the transcriptional feedback loop by modulating CLOCK:BMAL1 activity as a transcriptional repressor. Examination of 3 transcriptional regulators in mouse liver
Project description:The circadian system regulates numerous physiological processes including the adaptive immune system. Here we show that mice deficient for the circadian genes Cry1 and Cry2, (DKO) display an autoimmune phenotype including higher serum IgG concentration, presence of serum anti-nuclear antibodies, precipitation of IgG, IgM and complement 3 in glomeruli, and massive infiltrations of leukocytes into the lung and kidney. Activation of Cry DKO splenic B cells elicited markedly enhanced and prolonged tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins compared to cells from control mice, suggesting that over activation of the BCR signaling pathway may contribute to autoimmunity in the Cry DKO mice. Expression of C1q, deficiency of which contributes to the pathogenesis of Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), was significantly downregulated in Cry DKO B cells. This suggests that B cell development, BCR signaling pathway and C1q expression may be under direct circadian control and dysregulation of which contributes to autoimmunity.
Project description:Cryptochromes were identified in plants and animals where they function as either photoreceptors or circadian clock components. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora, the biological function of cryptochrome has not yet been explored. Here, we demonstrate that Neurospora crassa cryptochrome (Nc cry) is a DASH-type of cryptochrome, capable of binding FAD and MTHF, whose transcript and protein levels are both strongly induced by blue light in a wc-1 dependent manner. Although the Nc cry transcript is circadian-regulated and antiphasic to frq, knockout strains of Nc cry appears to have a normal clock phenotype. Whole genome microarray and RT-QPCR analysis confirm that Nc cry is not involved in the signal transduction of either early or late light responses and seems to have no transcriptional regulatory activity under our laboratory conditions. Our study concludes that the only cryptochrome in Neurospora crassa is dispensable for the well-characterized blue light sensing cascade and is not part of the circadian clock system. Keywords: light response Two-color microarray. Alexa Fluor 555 was consistently used to label cDNA synthesized from reference RNA, which is a mixture containing equal amounts of RNA samples harvested from different circadian time points and light treatment durations. The same batch of pooled RNA was used as a reference for each array experiment. Alexa Fluor 647 was used exclusively to label cDNA representing sample RNA.
Project description:The transcription-translation feedback loop, the core clock mechanism, is required for circadian rhythm. CRY protein, including CRY1 and CRY2, plays an important repressor role in the regulation of clock genes. However, other proteins, like PER1, PER2, NR1D1 and NR1D2, in the loop mask the transcriptional effects of CRY. This study provides data to find candidate genes specifically affected by CRY1 or CRY2 in mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells.
Project description:The daily organisation of most mammalian cellular functions is attributed to circadian regulation of clock-controlled protein expression, driven by daily cycles of CRYPTOCHROME-dependent transcriptional feedback repression. To test this, we used quantitative mass spectrometry to compare wild type and CRY-deficient fibroblasts under constant conditions. In CRY-deficient cells, we found that temporal variation in protein, phosphopeptide, and K+ abundance was at least as great as wild type controls. Most strikingly. the extent of temporal variation within either genotype was much smaller than overall differences in proteome composition between WT and CRY-deficient cells. This proteome imbalance in CRY-deficient cells and tissues was associated with increased susceptibility to proteotoxic stress, which impairs circadian robustness, and may contribute to the wide-ranging phenotypes of CRY-deficient mice. Rather than generating largescale daily variation in proteome composition, we suggest it is plausible that the various transcriptional and post-translational functions of CRY proteins ultimately act to promote protein and osmotic homeostasis against daily perturbation.
Project description:Molecular analysis of circadian rhythm in mice. Liver tissue of wildtype, Clock mutant and Cry deficient C57BL/6 8- to 10-week-old male mice examined. Keywords = circadian rhythm Keywords: other
Project description:The mammalian circadian clock is a molecular oscillator composed of a feedback loop that involves transcriptional activators CLOCK and BMAL1, and repressors Cryptochrome (CRY) and Period (PER). Here we show that a direct CLOCK-BMAL1 target gene, Gm129, is a novel regulator of the feedback loop. ChIP analysis revealed that the CLOCK:BMAL1:CRY1 complex strongly occupies the promoter region of Gm129. Both mRNA and protein levels of GM129 exhibit high amplitude circadian oscillations in mouse liver, and Gm129 gene encodes a nuclear-localized protein that directly interacts with BMAL1 and represses CLOCK:BMAL1 activity. In vitro and in vivo protein-DNA interaction results demonstrate that, like CRY1, GM129 functions as a repressor by binding to the CLOCK:BMAL1 complex on DNA. Although Gm129-/- or Cry1-/- Gm129-/- mice retain a robust circadian rhythm, the peaks of Nr1d1 and Dbp mRNAs in liver exhibit significant phase delay compared to control. Our results suggest that, in addition to CRYs and PERs, GM129 protein contributes to the transcriptional feedback loop by modulating CLOCK:BMAL1 activity as a transcriptional repressor.
Project description:By gating cell cycle progression to specific times of the day, the intracellular circadian clock is thought to reduce the exposure of replicating cells to potentially hazardous environmental and endogenous genotoxic compounds. Although core clock gene defects that eradicate circadian rhythmicity can cause an altered in vivo genotoxic stress response and aberrant proliferation rate, it remains to be determined to what extent these cell-cycle-related phenotypes are due to a cell-autonomous lack of circadian oscillations. We investigated the DNA damage sensitivity and proliferative capacity of cultured primary Cry1-/-|Cry2-/- fibroblasts. Contrasting previous in vivo studies, we show that the absence of CRY proteins does not affect the cell-autonomous DNA damage response upon exposure of primary cells in vitro to genotoxic agents, but causes cells to proliferate faster. By comparing primary wild type, Cry1-/-|Cry2-/-, Cry1+/-|Cry2-/- and Cry1-/-|Cry2+/- fibroblasts, we provide evidence that CRY proteins influence cell cycle progression in a cell-autonomous, but circadian clock-independent manner and that the accelerated cell cycle progression of Cry-deficient cells is caused by global dysregulation of Bmal1-dependent gene expression. These results suggest that the inconsistency between in vivo and in vitro observations might be attributed to systemic circadian control rather than a direct cell-autonomous control. Asynchronous proliferating MEFs grown under low (3%) oxygen tension and lysed in Trizol. Four independent cell lines were used for each genotype (WT, Cry DKO).