The metronomic predictability of the environment has elicited strong selection pressures for the evolution of endogenous circadian clocks. Circadian clocks drive molecular and behavioural rhythms that approximate the 24 h periodicity of our environment. Found almost ubiquitously among phyla, circadian clocks allow preadaptation to rhythms concomitant with the natural cycles of the Earth. Cycles in light intensity and temperature for example act as important cues that couple circadian clocks to the environment via a process called entrainment. This review summarizes our current understanding of the general and molecular principles of entrainment in the model organism Neurospora crassa, a simple eukaryote that has one of the best-studied circadian systems and light-signalling pathways.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20050949 | DOI Listing |
J Pineal Res
January 2025
Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, Germany.
Circadian clocks in the body drive daily cycles in physiology and behavior. A master clock in the brain maintains synchrony with the environmental day-night cycle and uses internal signals to keep clocks in other tissues aligned. Work in cell cultures uncovered cyclic changes in tissue oxygenation that may serve to reset and synchronize circadian clocks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Metab
January 2025
Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Center for Preventive Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address:
Tissue-level oscillation is achieved by tissue-intrinsic clocks along with network-dependent signals originating from distal organs and organismal behavior. Yet, it remains unexplored whether maternal circadian rhythms during pregnancy influence fetal rhythms and impact long-term susceptibility to dietary challenges in offspring. Here, we demonstrate that circadian disruption during pregnancy decreased placental and neonatal weight yet retained transcriptional and structural maturation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFASEB J
January 2025
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Following injury, skeletal muscle undergoes repair via satellite cell (SC)-mediated myogenic progression. In SCs, the circadian molecular clock gene, Bmal1, is necessary for appropriate myogenic progression and repair with evidence that muscle molecular clocks can also affect force production. Utilizing a mouse model allowing for inducible depletion of Bmal1 within SCs, we determined contractile function, SC myogenic progression and muscle damage and repair following eccentric contractile-induced injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Sleep Res
January 2025
Department of Neurology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Changes in social zeitgebers across the lifespan affect the interaction between biological and social clocks, potentially contributing to social jetlag. Extant literature suggests a reduction in social jetlag given declining social obligations occurring after retirement, but is limited to self-reported methods and cross-sectional designs. Leveraging longitudinal and ecologically valid data from consumer sleep technology, we analysed objective sleep data from 2439 users of the polysomnography-validated SleepScore mobile application, encompassing 500,415 total nights recorded.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Physiol (Oxf)
February 2025
Laboratory of Biological Rhythms, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
Aim: Exposure to light at night and meal time misaligned with the light/dark (LD) cycle-typical features of daily life in modern 24/7 society-are associated with negative effects on health. To understand the mechanism, we developed a novel protocol of complex chronodisruption (CD) in which we exposed female rats to four weekly cycles consisting of 5-day intervals of constant light and 2-day intervals of food access restricted to the light phase of the 12:12 LD cycle.
Methods: We examined the effects of CD on behavior, estrous cycle, sleep patterns, glucose homeostasis and profiles of clock- and metabolism-related gene expression (using RT qPCR) and liver metabolome and lipidome (using untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic profiling).
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!