Circadian regulation articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    A key property of circadian rhythms is that they can be reset in response to environmental time cues; this response is described by a Phase Response Curve (PRC). Here the authors describe PRCs for resetting circadian rhythms in lipids and hepatic proteins in response to combined light and food exposure.

    • Brianne A. Kent
    • , Shadab A. Rahman
    •  & Steven W. Lockley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cardiac function fluctuates greatly across the day and night, but this is not simply a consequence of our changing behaviour. The authors highlight the role of the body’s circadian clock in regulating the heart electrical activity, including a time-of-day dependent susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmias.

    • Edward A. Hayter
    • , Sophie M. T. Wehrens
    •  & David A. Bechtold

  • Article
    | Open Access

    VIP-expressing neurons play a central role in circadian timekeeping within the mammalian central clock. Here the authors use opto- and chemogenetic approaches to show that VIP neuronal activity regulates rhythmic activity in downstream hypothalamic target neurons and their physiological functions.

    • Sarika Paul
    • , Lydia Hanna
    •  & Timothy M. Brown

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sleep disturbance is common in psychiatric disease, and this may contribute to altered circadian rhythm in gene expression. Here the authors show that rhythms in gene expression in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia are different to that seen in healthy controls.

    • Marianne L. Seney
    • , Kelly Cahill
    •  & Colleen A. McClung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quality, quantity and timing of sleep are important factors for overall human health. Here, the authors perform GWAS for sleep traits estimated using wearable accelerometers and identify 47 genetic associations, including 26 novel associations for measures of sleep quality and 10 for nocturnal sleep duration.

    • Samuel E. Jones
    • , Vincent T. van Hees
    •  & Andrew R. Wood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many genes have oscillating gene expression pattern in circadian centers of the brain. This study shows cortical diurnal DNA methylation oscillation in a mouse model of Prader-Willi syndrome, and describes corresponding changes in gene expression and chromatin compaction.

    • Rochelle L. Coulson
    • , Dag H. Yasui
    •  & Janine M. LaSalle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Resting cortical activity fluctuates, but it is unclear what underlies these variations in activity. Here, the authors show that large-scale fluctuations in fMRI cortical activity are associated with momentary decreases in cortical arousal and opposite activity changes in the basal forebrain and thalamus.

    • Xiao Liu
    • , Jacco A. de Zwart
    •  & Jeff H. Duyn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    African sleeping sickness is well known for the alterations of sleeping patterns, but it is not known how circadian biology is altered by the causative pathogen Trypanosoma brucei. Here the authors show T. brucei causes a disorder of the cellular circadian clock that is unrelated to the immune response to the parasite.

    • Filipa Rijo-Ferreira
    • , Tânia Carvalho
    •  & Joseph S. Takahashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circadian controls of immune responses by the molecular clock have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here the authors show that the master circadian gene, Bmal1, is essential for modulating the homeostasis of myeloid cells to control pro-inflammatory IL-17+/IFN-γ+ T cells in autoimmunity.

    • Caroline E. Sutton
    • , Conor M. Finlay
    •  & Annie M. Curtis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The emergence of the adult fruit flies from the pupae is jointly regulated by the central and peripheral clocks. Selchoet al. show that synchronization of the two clocks is mediated by the master clock brain neurons producing sNPF, and non-clock PTTH neurons that regulate the peripheral clock producing the steroid moulting hormone, ecdysone.

    • Mareike Selcho
    • , Carola Millán
    •  & John Ewer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diurnal and seasonal rhythms modulate brain function, but we do not know the genomic basis for these rhythms. Here, Limet al. show diurnal and seasonal rhythms of gene expression in the human brain, their relationship to histone acetylation and DNA methylation, and their disruption in Alzheimer’s disease.

    • Andrew S. P. Lim
    • , Hans-Ulrich Klein
    •  & Philip L. De Jager

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disruption of circadian rhythms leads to reduced healthspan, but the mechanisms by which the normal clock protects aging organisms are not known. Here, the authors show that a subset of genes becomes more rhythmically expressed in older flies, and these are enriched for response to oxidative stress.

    • Rachael C. Kuintzle
    • , Eileen S. Chow
    •  & David A Hendrix

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neuropathic pain hypersensitivity is known to undergo diurnal variations, although the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Using a sciatic nerve-injury mouse model, the authors find such diurnal changes are mediated by glucocorticoid induced enhancement of ATP release from astrocytes via pannexin-1 hemichannels.

    • Satoru Koyanagi
    • , Naoki Kusunose
    •  & Shigehiro Ohdo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Learning and memory are subject to circadian variation, though the molecular mechanisms behind this are unclear. Here, the authors show SCOP, a regulator of hippocampal memory, undergoes circadian changes in CA1 membrane raft dynamics and contributes to time-dependent changes in long-term memory.

    • Kimiko Shimizu
    • , Yodai Kobayashi
    •  & Yoshitaka Fukada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cognitive performance is impaired after prolonged wakefulness, yet the contribution of circadian rhythms for proper brain function remains unclear. Here the authors show that cortical excitability measured using TMS exhibits robust circadian dynamics which is correlated with cognitive performance.

    • Julien Q. M. Ly
    • , Giulia Gaggioni
    •  & Gilles Vandewalle

  • Article |

    The transcription factor p53 is a master regulator of the cellular stress response. Here, Miki et al.show that p53 directly regulates the expression of the circadian regulator Per2 in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and modulates circadian behaviour of mice.

    • Takao Miki
    • , Tomoko Matsumoto
    •  & Cheng Chi Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circadian rhythm is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the mechanisms that control the rhythm are largely undiscovered. In this study, a G protein regulator, RGS16, is shown to be involved in the production of cyclic AMP that is required for the suprachiasmatic nucleus to maintain rhythm

    • Masao Doi
    • , Atsushi Ishida
    •  & Hitoshi Okamura

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