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Kernel Architecture of the Genetic Circuitry of the Arabidopsis Circadian System

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 Added by Pan-Jun Kim
 Publication date 2016
  fields Biology Physics
and research's language is English




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A wide range of organisms features molecular machines, circadian clocks, which generate endogenous oscillations with ~24 h periodicity and thereby synchronize biological processes to diurnal environmental fluctuations. Recently, it has become clear that plants harbor more complex gene regulatory circuits within the core circadian clocks than other organisms, inspiring a fundamental question: are all these regulatory interactions between clock genes equally crucial for the establishment and maintenance of circadian rhythms? Our mechanistic simulation for Arabidopsis thaliana demonstrates that at least half of the total regulatory interactions must be present to express the circadian molecular profiles observed in wild-type plants. A set of those essential interactions is called herein a kernel of the circadian system. The kernel structure unbiasedly reveals four interlocked negative feedback loops contributing to circadian rhythms, and three feedback loops among them drive the autonomous oscillation itself. Strikingly, the kernel structure, as well as the whole clock circuitry, is overwhelmingly composed of inhibitory, rather than activating, interactions between genes. We found that this tendency underlies plant circadian molecular profiles which often exhibit sharply-shaped, cuspidate waveforms. Through the generation of these cuspidate profiles, inhibitory interactions may facilitate the global coordination of temporally-distant clock events that are markedly peaked at very specific times of day. Our systematic approach resulting in experimentally-testable predictions provides insights into a design principle of biological clockwork, with implications for synthetic biology.



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In mammals, most cells in the brain and peripheral tissues generate circadian (~24hr) rhythms autonomously. These self-sustained rhythms are coordinated and entrained by a master circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Within the SCN, the individual rhythms of each neuron are synchronized through intercellular signaling. One important feature of SCN is that the synchronized period is close to the cell population mean of intrinsic periods. In this way, the synchronized period of the SCN stays close to the periods of cells in peripheral tissues. This is important for SCN to entrain cells throughout the body. However, the mechanism that drives the period of the coupled SCN cells to the population mean is not known. We use mathematical modeling and analysis to show that the mechanism of transcription repression plays a pivotal role in regulating the coupled period. Specifically, we use phase response curve analysis to show that the coupled period within the SCN stays near the population mean if transcriptional repression occurs via protein sequestration. In contrast, the coupled period is far from the mean if repression occurs through highly nonlinear Hill-type regulation (e.g. oligomer- or phosphorylation-based repression). Furthermore, we find that the timescale of intercellular coupling needs to be fast compared to that of intracellular feedback to maintain the mean period. These findings reveal the important relationship between the intracellular transcriptional feedback loop and intercellular coupling. This relationship explains why transcriptional repression appears to occur via protein sequestration in multicellular organisms, mammals and Drosophila, in contrast with the phosphorylation-based repression in unicellular organisms. That is, transition to protein sequestration is essential for synchronizing multiple cells with a period close to the population mean (~24hr).
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