Drosophila clock can generate ectopic circadian clocks

Jie Zhao, Valerie L. Kilman, Kevin P. Keegan, Ying Peng, Patrick Emery, Michael Rosbash, Ravi Allada*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

111 Scopus citations

Abstract

Circadian rhythms of behavior, physiology, and gene expression are present in diverse tissues and organisms. The function of the transcriptional activator, Clock, is necessary in both Drosophila and mammals for the expression of many core clock components. We demonstrate in Drosophila that Clock misexpression in naïve brain regions induces circadian gene expression. This includes major components of the pacemaker program, as Clock also activates the rhythmic expression of cryptochrome, a gene that CLOCK normally represses. Moreover, this ectopic clock expression has potent effects on behavior, radically altering locomotor activity patterns. We propose that Clock is uniquely able to induce and organize the core elements of interdependent feedback loops necessary for circadian rhythms.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)755-766
Number of pages12
JournalCell
Volume113
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 13 2003

Funding

We thank the following individuals for reagents: Jeff Hall for timGAL4 flies, Dan Eberl pPTGAL4, Mei-Ling Joiner and the Bloomington Stock Center for GAL4 lines, and Amita Sehgal for UASper flies. We also thank Myai Emery-Le and Orie Shafer for assistance in the initial phases of this project and Rich Carthew for comments. R.A. is supported by a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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