PUBLICATION

Light acts directly on organs and cells in culture to set the vertebrate circadian clock

Authors
Whitmore, D., Foulkes, N.S., and Sassone-Corsi, P.
ID
ZDB-PUB-000824-4
Date
2000
Source
Nature   404(6773): 87-91 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Foulkes, Nicholas-Simon, Sassone-Corsi, Paolo, Whitmore, David
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Biological Clocks*/genetics
  • Biological Clocks*/radiation effects
  • CLOCK Proteins
  • Cell Line
  • Circadian Rhythm*/genetics
  • Circadian Rhythm*/radiation effects
  • Heart/physiology
  • Heart/radiation effects
  • Kidney/physiology
  • Kidney/radiation effects
  • Light*
  • Organ Culture Techniques
  • Temperature
  • Trans-Activators/genetics
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
10716448 Full text @ Nature
Abstract
The expression of clock genes in vertebrates is widespread and not restricted to classical clock structures. The expression of the Clock gene in zebrafish shows a strong circadian oscillation in many tissues in vivo and in culture, showing that endogenous oscillators exist in peripheral organs. A defining feature of circadian clocks is that they can be set or entrained to local time, usually by the environmental light-dark cycle. An important question is whether peripheral oscillators are entrained to local time by signals from central pacemakers such as the eyes or are themselves directly light-responsive. Here we show that the peripheral organ clocks of zebrafish are set by light-dark cycles in culture. We also show that a zebrafish-derived cell line contains a circadian oscillator, which is also directly light entrained.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping