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Our circadian clocks play a crucial role in our health and well-being, keeping our 24-hour biological cycles in sync with light and dark exposure. Disruptions in the rhythms of these clocks, as with jet lag and daylight saving time, can throw our daily functioning out of sync. University of California San Diego scientists are now getting closer to understandinghow these clocks operateat their core.
In the journalNature Structural & Molecular Biology, researchers based in UC San Diego's Department of Molecular Biology (School of Biological Sciences) and Center for Circadian Biology, along with national and international colleagues from Newcastle University (United Kingdom), have solved how the circadian clocks within microscopic bacteria are able to precisely control when different genes are turned on and off during the 24-hour cycle.
The researchers made their discovery in cyanobacteria, tiny aquatic organisms that are also known as blue-green algae. They uncovered the links betweencore componentsof cyanobacteria's 24-hour clock that direct the rhythmic expression of genes.
"We were able to show how a single signal from the clock can turn one set of genes on and another set off, generating opposite phases of gene expression. In that cell, that means some cellular processes are peaking at dusk and others at dawn," said Biological Sciences Distinguished Professor Susan Golden, the senior author of the study.
In recent years, circadian clocks have become the subject of increased interest due to their central role in health and medicine.Medicationsand vaccinations are more effective when taken during certain hours of the day to align with our circadian clocks.
UC San Diego recently named Amir Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D., as the inaugural holder of the Stuart and Barbara L. Brody Endowed Chair in Circadian Biology and Medicine, a position created by the School of Medicine and School of Biological Sciences to accelerate UC San Diego's research at the intersection of circadian biology and patient care.
In the new study, the researchers identified the minimal elements needed to control circadian gene transcription, the first phase of gene expression, in cyanobacteria.
Source: Phys.org
