Chronobiology
Author: Melisa Luciana LAMBERTI | Email: melisalamberti@gmail.com
Melisa Luciana Lamberti 1°, M. Eugenia Goya 2°, Myriam Ares 3°, Victoria Cerdeira 3°, Lise Rivollet 3°, Claire Bénard 3°, Ignacio Spiousas 4°, Diego A. Golombek 4°
1° Laboratorio de Cronobiología , Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2° European Institute for the Biology of Aging (ERIBA) , University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
3° Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
4° Laboratorio Interdisciplinario del Tiempo y la Experiencia (LITERA), CONICET, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Circadian rhythms are endogenous oscillations, which allows organisms to adapt to the cyclical changes present in nature. They are regulated by a set of genes, called clock genes, which make up the central clock. This central clock is entrained by Zeitgebers, such as light and temperature cycles. Circadian clocks are pervasive throughout nature, yet they remain unexplored and uncharacterized in the nematode C. elegans. Here, we analyze the effect of LIN-42, KIN-20 and AHA-1 proteins on the regulation of nematode circadian rhythms using a reporter system based on bioluminescence. We find that the absence of the LIN-42, KIN-20 and AHA-1 proteins produce a lengthening of the endogenous period. We also show that LIN-42 and KIN-20 are expressed in the same tissues and KIN-20 regulates LIN-42 levels. In addition, thanks to the application of the auxin-indicated degradation (AID) technique, we were able to observe that the LIN-42 and KIN-20 proteins regulate circadian rhythms specifically in neurons. These findings further our understanding of the mechanisms by which these conserved clock proteins interact to regulate rhythmic processes in the adult nematode C. elegans.