Hypothalamic circuits and aging:keeping the circadian clock updated

Over the past century,age-related diseases,such as cancer,type-2 diabetes,obesity,and mental illness,have shown a significant increase,negatively impacting overall quality of life.Studies on aged animal models have unveiled a progressive discoordination at multiple regulatory levels,including transcriptional,translational,and post-translational processes,resulting from cellular stress and circadian derangements.The circadian clock emerges as a key regulator,sustaining physiological homeostasis and promoting healthy aging through timely molecular coordination of pivotal cellular processes,such as stem-cell function,cellular stress responses,and inter-tissue communication,which become disrupted during aging.Given the crucial role of hypothalamic circuits in regulating organismal physiology,metabolic control,sleep homeostasis,and circadian rhythms,and their dependence on these processes,strategies aimed at enhancing hypothalamic and circadian function,including pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches,offer systemic benefits for healthy aging.Intranasal brain-directed drug administration represents a promising avenue for effectively targeting specific brain regions,like the hypothalamus,while reducing side effects associated with systemic drug delivery,thereby presenting new therapeutic possibilities for diverse age-related conditions.

Flowering-time regulation by the circadian clock:From Arabidopsis to crops

Precise timing of flowering in plants is critical for their growth and reproductive processes.One factor controlling flowering time is the cycle of light and darkness within a day,known as the photoperiod.Plants are classified into long-day,short-day,and day-neutral plants based on light requirements for floral initiation.Although the molecular mechanisms that govern this differentiation remain incompletely understood,studies have consistently shown that the circadian clock plays a central role in regulating photoperiod response across diverse plant species.However,there is a scarcity of reviews describing the regulatory network linking the circadian clock with photoperiodic flowering.This review summarizes that regulatory network,focusing on the distinct roles of clock genes in long-day and short-day plants.We also discuss the strategies of clock gene mutations contributing to geographic variation in longday and short-day crops.

Major roles of the circadian clock in cancer

Circadian rhythms are natural rhythms that widely exist in all creatures,and regulate the processes and physiological functions of various biochemical reactions.The circadian clock is critical for cancer occurrence and progression.Its function is regulated by metabolic activities,and the expression and transcription of various genes.This review summarizes the composition of the circadian clock;the biological basis for its function;its relationship with,and mechanisms in,cancer;its various functions in different cancers;the effects of anti-tumor treatment;and potential therapeutic targets.Research in this area is expected to advance understanding of circadian locomotor output cycles kaput(CLOCK)and brain and muscle ARNT-like protein 1(BMAL1)in tumor diseases,and contribute to the development of new anti-tumor treatment strategies.

Molecular insights into the circadian clock in marine diatoms

The circadian clock is a fundamental endogenous mechanism of adaptation that coordinates the physiology and behavior of most organisms with diel variations in the external environment to maintain temporal homeostasis.Diatoms are the major primary producers in the ocean.However,little is known about the circadian clock in marine diatoms compared with other organisms.Here,we investigated circadian clock genes,their expression patterns,and responses to environmental stimuli such as light,nitrogen and phosphorus in two marine diatoms,Skeletonema costatum and Phaeodactylum tricornutum,using a combination of q RT-PCR and bioinformatic analysis.We identified 17 and 18 circadian clock genes in P.tricornutum and S.costatum,respectively.Despite significant evolutionary differences,these genes were similar to those of the higher plant Arabidopsis.We also established a molecular model for the marine diatom circadian clock comprising an input pathway,core oscillator,output pathway,and valve effector.Notably,the expression patterns of core clock genes(circadian clock associated 1(CCA1),late elongated hypocotyl(LHY)and timing of cab 1(TOC1))in both species differed from those of terrestrial plants.Furthermore,the expression of these genes was influenced by variations in ambient light,nitrogen and phosphorus availability.Although marine diatoms and higher plants share common circadian clock components,their clock genes have diverged throughout evolution,likely as a result of adapting to contrasting environments.

Dynamic behavior of the cyanobacterial circadian clock with regulation of CikA

Cyanobacteria are the simplest organisms to have circadian clocks.The central oscillator in cyanobacteria is composed by a transcriptional/translational feedback loop(TTFL)and a post-translational oscillator(PTO).The PTO is a core pacemaker which consists of three proteins KaiA,KaiB and KaiC.KaiA stimulates the phosphorylation of KaiC,while KaiB inhibits the activity of KaiA.The cyanobacterial circadian clock is an interesting topic for researchers and many mathematical models have been constructed.However,the current mathematical models of the cyanobacterial circadian clock have been made only considering the interactions between Kai proteins.CikA,as an input pathway component,plays an essential role in the circadian clock,whose mutation results in abnormal rhythms.The regulation mechanism of CikA remains unclear.In this paper,we develop a detailed mathematical model for the cyanobacterial circadian clock with incorporation CikA-regulation.Based on numerical simulations,we explore the dynamic properties of the circadian clock regulated by CikA.The results show that the regulation of CikA makes the system more sensitive.In detail,CikA strengthens the central role of PTO and improves the adaptability of the circadian clock against the change of environment.With CikA,the system is able to modulate its period more easily to face environmental perturbation.CikA also enhances slightly the fitness of cyanobacteria.The findings of this paper can supplement the biological research and may help us more clearly understand the cyanobacterial circadian clock regulated by other proteins.

Entrainment mechanism of the cyanobacterial circadian clock induced by oxidized quinone

The circadian clock is a self-sustained biological oscillator which can be entrained by environmental signals.The cyanobacteria circadian clock is the simplest one,which is composed of the proteins KaiA,KaiB and KaiC.The phosphorylation/dephosphorylation state of KaiC exhibits a circadian oscillator.KaiA and KaiB activate KaiC phosphorylation and dephosphorylation respectively.CikA competing with KaiA for the same binding site on KaiB affects the phosphorylation state of KaiC.Quinone is a signaling molecule for entraining the cyanobacterial circadian clock which is oxidized at the onset of darkness and reduced at the onset of light,reflecting the environmental light-dark cycle.KaiA and CikA can sense external signals by detecting the oxidation state of quinone.However,the entrainment mechanism is far from clear.We develop an enhanced mathematical model including oxidized quinone sensed by KaiA and CikA,with which we present a detailed study on the entrainment of the cyanobacteria circadian clock induced by quinone signals.We find that KaiA and CikA sensing oxidized quinone pulse are related to phase advance and delay,respectively.The time of oxidized quinone pulse addition plays a key role in the phase shifts.The combination of KaiA and CikA is beneficial to the generation of entrainment,and the increase of signal intensity reduces the entrainment phase.This study provides a theoretical reference for biological research and helps us understand the dynamical mechanisms of cyanobacteria circadian clock.

circadian clock circuitry in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is the most prevalent among digestive system cancers.Carcinogenesis relies on disrupted control of cellular processes,such as metabolism,proliferation,DNA damage recognition and repair,and apoptosis.Cell,tissue,organ and body physiology is characterized by periodic fluctuations driven by biological clocks operating through the clock gene machinery.Dysfunction of molecular clockworks and cellular oscillators is involved in tumorigenesis,and altered expression of clock genes has been found in cancer patients.Epidemiological studies have shown that circadian disruption,that is,alteration of bodily temporal organization,is a cancer risk factor,and an increased incidence of colorectal neoplastic disease is reported in shift workers.In this review we describe the involvement of the circadian clock circuitry in colorectal carcinogenesis and the therapeutic strategies addressing temporal deregulation in colorectal cancer.

Effects of 72 Hours Sleep Deprivation on Liver Circadian Clock Gene Expression and Oxidative Stress in Rats

Objective: To investigate the effects of 72 hours continuous sleep deprivation (SD) on circadian clock gene expression and oxidative stress in the rat liver. Methods: Twenty healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups (n = 10 each) using a random number table: normal control group (group C), sleep deprivation group (group SD). Group SD was treated with a modified multiple platform water environment method. After 72 hours sleep deprived, the levels of AST (Aspartate transaminase ) and ALT (Alanine aminotransferase) in serum were determined. The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the liver tissue of the rats were examined in both two groups. The expression levels of CLOCK, BMAL1 and CRY1 protein in liver tissue were examined by Western blotting. Results: Compared with group C, the content of MDA, and the levels of AST and ALT in serum were significantly increased (P Conclusion: 72 hours continuous sleep deprivation can downregulate the expression of circadian clock gene and promote oxidative stress in rats.

Modelling of intercellular synchronization in the Drosophila circadian clock

In circadian rhythm generation, intercellular signaling factors are shown to play a crucial role in both sustaining intrinsic cellular rhythmicity and acquiring collective behaviours across a population of circadian neurons. However, the physical mechanism behind their role remains to be fully understood. In this paper, we propose an indirectly coupled multicellular model for the synchronization of Drosophila circadian oscillators combining both intracellular and intercellular dynamics. By simulating different experimental conditions, we find that such an indirect coupling way can synchronize both heterogeneous self-sustained circadian neurons and heterogeneous mutational damped circadian neurons. Moreover, they can also be entrained to ambient light-dark （LD） cycles depending on intercellular signaling.

Piperine regulates the circadian rhythms of hepatic clock gene expressions and gut microbiota in high-fat diet-induced obese rats

The interplay between the host circadian clock and microbiota has significant influences on host metabolism processes,and circadian desynchrony triggered by high-fat diet(HFD)is closely related to metabolic disorders.In this study,the modulatory effects of piperine(PIP)on lipid metabolism homeostasis,gut microbiota community and circadian rhythm of hepatic clock gene expressions in obese rats were investigated.The Sprague-Dawley(SD)rats were fed with normal diet(ND),HFD and HFD supplemented with PIP,respectively.After 9 weeks,rats were sacrificed with tissue and fecal samples collected for circadian analysis.Results showed that chronic PIP administration ameliorated the obesity-induced alterations in lipid metabolism and dysregulation of hepatic clock gene expressions in obese rats.The gut microbial communities studied through 16S rRNA sequencing showed that PIP ameliorated the imbalanced nicrobiota and recovered the circadian rhythm of Lactobacillaceae,Desulfovibrionaceae,Paraprevotellaceae,and Lachnospiraceae.The fecal metabolic profiles indicated that 3-dehydroshikimate,cytidine and lithocholyltaurine were altered,which were involved in the amino acid and fatty acid metabolism process.These findings could provide theoretical basis for PIP to work as functional food to alleviate the lipid metabolism disorder,circadian rhythm misalignment,and gut microbiota dysbiosis with wide applications in the food and pharmaceutic industries.

The circadian clock of anti-tumor immunity

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by leveraging the intrinsic immune system.Although tremendous attention has focused on developing a new class of drugs enhancing or normalizing anti-tumor immunity,little effort was devoted to considering their time-of-day difference of administration in therapeutic efficacy.

Coordinated regulation of the mitochondrial retrograde response by circadian clock regulators and ANAC017

Mitochondrial retrograde signaling(MRS)supports photosynthetic function under a variety of conditions.Induction of mitochondrial dysfunction with myxothiazol(a specific inhibitor of the mitochondrial bc1 complex)or antimycin A(an inhibitor of the mitochondrial bc1 complex and cyclic electron transport in the chloroplast under light conditions)in the light and dark revealed diurnal control of MRS.This was evidenced by(1)significantly enhanced binding of ANAC017 to promoters in the light compared with the dark in Arabidopsis plants treated with myxothiazol(but not antimycin A),(2)overlap in the experimentally determined binding sites for ANAC017 and circadian clock regulators in the promoters of ANAC013 and AOX1a,(3)a diurnal expression pattern for ANAC017 and transcription factors it regulates,(4)altered expression of ANAC017-regulated genes in circadian clock mutants with and without myxothiazol treatment,and(5)a decrease in the magnitude of LHY and CCA1 expression in an ANAC017-overexpressing line and protein–protein interaction between ANAC017 and PIF4.This study also shows a large difference in transcriptome responses to antimycin A and myxothiazol in the dark:these responses are ANAC017 independent,observed in shoots and roots,similar to biotic challenge and salicylic acid responses,and involve ERF and ZAT transcription factors.This suggests that antimycin A treatment stimulates a second MRS pathway that is mediated or converges with salicylic acid signaling and provides a merging point with chloroplast retrograde signaling.

Temporal transcriptome reveals that circadian clock is invoived in the dynamic regulation of immune response to bacterial infection in Bombyx mori

The circadian clock plays a critical role in the regulation of host immune defense.However,the mechanistic basis for this regulation is largely unknown.Herein,the core clock gene cryptochromel(cryl)knockout line in Bombyx mori,an invertebrate animal model,was constructed to obtain the silkworm with dysfunctional molecular clock,and the dynamic regulation of the circadian clock on the immune responsiveness within 24h of Staphylococcus aureus infection was analyzed.We found that deletion of cryl decreased viability of silkworms and significantly reduced resistance of larvae to S.aureus.Time series RNA-seq analysis identified thousands of rhythmically expressed genes,including immune response genes,in the larval immune tissue,fat bodies.Uninfected cry1 knockout silkworms exhibited expression patterns of rhythmically expressed genes similar to wild-type(WT)silkworms infected with S.aureus.However,cry knockout silkworms exhibited a seriously weakened response to S.aureus infection.The immune response peaked at 6 and 24 h after infection,during which“transcription storms”occurred,and the expression levels of the immune response genes,PGRP and antimicrobial peptides(AMPs),were significantly upregulated in WT.In contrast,cry I knockout did not effectively activate Toll,Imd,or NF-κB signaling pathways during the immune adjustment period from 12 to 18 h after infection,resulting in failure to initiate the immune responsiveness peak at 24 h after infection.This may be related to inhibited silkworm fat body energy metabolism.These results demonstrated the dynamic regulation of circadian clock on silkworm immune response to bacterial infection and provided important insights into hostantimicrobial defensemechanisms.

The role of circadian clocks in cancer:Mechanisms and clinical implications

Circadian rhythm refers to the inherent 24-h cycle oscillation of biochemical,phys-iological and behavioral functions,which is almost universal in eukaryotes.At least 14 core clock genes have been reported to form multiple chain feedback loops that confer intrinsic circadian rhythmicity onto the molecular clock.Accumulating evidence has shown that the circadian gene dysfunction resulted from single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs),deletions,epigenetic modification,and deregulation is strongly associated with cancer risk.In the pre-sent review,we describe the composition of circadian rhythm system.We highlight the func-tion and mechanism of clock genes in cancer pathogenesis and progression.Moreover,their potential clinical implications as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets have been ad-dressed.

Circadian Clock Genes Universally Control Key Agricultural Traits

Circadian clocks are endogenous timers that enable plants to synchronize biological processes with daily and seasonal environmental conditions in order to allocate resources during the most beneficial times of day and year. The circadian clock regulates a number of central plant activities, including growth, develop- ment, and reproduction, primarily through controlling a substantial proportion of transcriptional activity and protein function. This review examines the roles that alleles of circadian clock genes have played in domestication and improvement of crop plants. The focus here is on three groups of circadian clock genes essential to clock function in Arabidopsis thaliana： PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATORs, GIGANTEA, and the evening complex genes EARL Y FLOWERING 3, EARLY FLOWERING 4, and LUX ARRHYTHMO. Homol- ogous genes from each group underlie quantitative trait loci that have beneficial influences on key agricul- tural traits, especially flowering time but also yield, biomass, and biennial growth habit. Emerging insights into circadian clock regulation of other fundamental plant processes, including responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, are discussed to highlight promising avenues for further crop improvement.

OsELF3 Is Involved in Circadian Clock Regulation for Promoting Flowering under Long-Day Conditions in Rice

Heading date is a critical trait that determines cropping seasons and regional adaptability in rice （Oryza sativa）. Research efforts during the last decade have identified some important photoperiod pathway genes that are conserved between Arabidopsis and rice. In this study, we identified a novel gene, Oryza sativa ELF3 （OsELF3）, which is a putative homolog of the ELF3 gene in Arabidopsis thaliana. OsELF3 was required for the control of heading date under long-day conditions. Its Tos17-tagging mutants exhibited a delayed heading date phenotype only under long-day, but not short-day, conditions. OsELF3 was highly expressed in leaf blades, and the OsELF3 protein was localized in the nucleolus. An obvious diurnal rhythm of OsELF3 transcript level was observed, with a trough in the early day and a peak in the late night in wild-type plants. However, this expression pattern was disrupted in oself3 mutants. Further inves- tigations showed that the expression of OsGI and Ghd7 was up-regulated in the oself3 mutant, indicating that OsELF3 acts as a negative regulator upstream of OsGI and Ghd7 in the flowering-time control under long-day conditions. The rhythmic expression of circadian clock-related genes, including some OsPRR members, was obviously affected in oself3 mutants. Our results indicated that OsELF3 acts as a floral activator in the long-day photoperiodic pathway via its cross- talk with the circadian clock in rice.

A Domestication-Associated Gene GmPRR3b Regulates the Circadian Clock and Flowering Time in Soybean

Improved soybean cultivars have been adapted to grow at a wide range of latitudes,enabling expansion of cultivation worldwide.However,the genetic basis of this broad adaptation is still not clear.Here,we report the identification of GmPRR3b as a major flowering time regulatory gene that has been selected during domestication and genetic improvement for geographic expansion.Through a genome-wide association study of a diverse soybean landrace panel consisting of 279 accessions,we identified 16 candidate quantitative loci associated with flowering time and maturity time.The strongest signal resides in the known flowering gene E2,verifying the effectiveness of our approach.We detected strong signals associated with both flowering and maturity time in a genomic region containing GmPRR3b.Haplotype analysis revealed that GmPRR3bH6 is the major form of GmPRR3b that has been utilized during recent breeding of modern cultivars.mRNA profiling analysis showed that GmPRR3bH6 displays rhythmic and photoperiod-dependent expression and is preferentially induced under long-day conditions.Overexpression of GmPRR3bH6 increased main stem node number and yield,while knockout of GmPRR3bH6 using CRISPR/Cas9 technology delayed growth and the floral transition.GmPRR3bH6 appears to act as a transcriptional repressor of multiple predicted circadian clock genes,including GmCCAIa,which directly upregulates J/GmELF3a to modulate flowering time.The causal SNP(Chr12:5520945)likely endows GmPRR3bH6 a moderate but appropriate level of activity,leading to early flowering and vigorous growth traits preferentially selected during broad adaptation of landraces and improvement of cultivars.

COR27 and COR28 encode nighttime repressors integrating Arabidopsis circadian clock and cold response

Summary It was noted that circadian components function in plant adaptation to diurnal temperature cycles and freezing tolerance. Our genome-wide transcriptome analysis revealed that evening-phased COR27 and COR28 mainly repress the transcription of clockassociated evening genes PRRS, ELF4 and cold-responsive genes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation indicated that CCAI is recruited to the site containing EE elements of COR27 and COR28 promoters in a temperaturedependent way. Further genetic analysis shows COR28 is essential for the circadian function of PRR9 and PRRT. Together, our results support a role of COR27 and COR28 as nighttime repressors integrating circadian clock and plant cold stress responses.

Nuclear Localized O-Fucosyltransferase SPY Facilitates PRR5 Proteolysis to Fine-Tune the Pace of Arabidopsis Circadian Clock

Post-translational modifications play essential roles in finely modulating eukaryotic circadian clock systems.In plants,the effects of O-glycosylation on the circadian clock and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown.The O-fucosyltransferase SPINDLY(SPY)and the O-GIcNAc transferase SECRET AGENT(SEC)are two prominent O-glycosylation enzymes in higher plants,with both overlapped and unique functions in plant growth and development.Unlike the critical role of O-GIcNAc in regulating the animal circadian clock,here we report that nuclear-localized SPY,but not SEC,specifically modulates the pace of the Arabidopsis circadian clock.By identifying the interactome of SPY,we identified PSEUDORESPONSE REGULATOR 5(PRR5),one of the core circadian clock components,as a new SPY-interacting protein.PRR5 can be O-fucosylated by SPY in pianta,while point mutation in the catalytic domain of SPY abolishes the O-fucosylation of PRR5.The protein abundance of PRR5 is strongly increased in spy mutants,while the degradation rate of PRR5 is much reduced,suggesting that PRR5 proteolysis is promoted by SPY-mediated O-fucosylation.Moreover,multiple lines of genetic evidence indicate that PRR5 is a major downstream target of SPY to specifically mediate its modulation of the circadian clock.Collectively,our findings provide novel insights into the specific role of the O-fucosyltransferase activity of SPY in modulating the circadian clock and implicate that O-glycosylation might play an evolutionarily conserved role in modulating the circadian clock system,via O-GIcNAcylation in mammals,but via O-fuco-sylation in higher plants.