27
February 2003
Circadian clocks: RNA does time
Research on circadian clocks has centred on genes encoding clock function proteins. The first hint that noncoding RNAs might be involved in natural clocks came from the silkmoth, where an antisense period transcript was discovered. The exact role of the RNA has remained elusive. Now antisense transcripts of a central clock component in the fungus Neurospora have been identified. The antisense version of frq messenger RNA plays a central role in the perception of time by sensing frq transcripts in the dark, and the antisense frq is induced in the light.
Role for antisense RNA in regulating circadian clock
function in Neurospora crassa
CAS KRAMER,
JENNIFER J. LOROS, JAY C. DUNLAP & SUSAN K. CROSTHWAITE
Nature
421, 948–952 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01427
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