Abstract
We report the cloning and mapping of mouse (mTim) and human (hTIM) orthologs of the Drosophila timeless (dtim) gene. The mammalian Tim genes are widely expressed in a variety of tissues; however, unlike Drosophila, mTim mRNA levels do not oscillate in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) or retina. Importantly, hTIM interacts with the Drosophila PERIOD (dPER) protein as well as the mouse PER1 and PER2 proteins in vitro. In Drosophila (S2) cells, hTIM and dPER interact and translocate into the nucleus. Finally, hTIM and mPER1 specifically inhibit CLOCK-BMAL1-induced transactivation of the mPer1 promoter. Taken together, these results demonstrate that mTim and hTIM are mammalian orthologs of timeless and provide a framework for a basic circadian autoregulatory loop in mammals.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1101-1113 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Neuron |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1998 |
Funding
We thank D. Spicer and A. Lassar for generously providing MyoD, E12, and Id expression plasmids and mck-luciferase reporter gene construct; M. B. Kelz and members of the Takahashi laboratory for useful discussions; D. J. Bernard for assistance with in situ hybridization; T. D. L. Steeves, E.-J. Song, and J. Kushla for technical assistance; and A.-M. Chang for help with the manuscript. Research was supported by the NSF Center for Biological Timing (J. S. T. and M. W. Y.), an Unrestricted Research Grant in Neuroscience from Bristol-Myers Squibb (J. S. T.), an NSF grant and McKnight Scholars Award (C. J. W.), and NIH GM54339 (M. W. Y.). A. W. is a Research Technologist, K. S. is a Research Associate, and J. S. T. is an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience