Abstract
At the core of the mammalian circadian clock is a feedback loop in which the heterodimeric transcription factor CLOCK–Brain, Muscle Arnt-like-1 (BMAL1) drives expression of its negative regulators, periods (PERs) and cryptochromes (CRYs). Here, we provide evidence that CLOCK-Interacting Protein, Circadian (CIPC) is an additional negative-feedback regulator of the circadian clock. CIPC exhibits circadian regulation in multiple tissues, and it is a potent and specific inhibitor of CLOCK–BMAL1 activity that functions independently of CRYs. CIPC–CLOCK protein complexes are present in vivo, and depletion of endogenous CIPC shortens the circadian period length. CIPC is unrelated to known proteins and has no recognizable homologues outside vertebrates. Our results suggest that negative feedback in the mammalian circadian clock is divided into distinct pathways, and that the addition of new genes has contributed to the complexity of vertebrate clocks.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Choogon Lee for advice on immunoprecipitation and D. Knutti and K.-F. Storch for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH; R01-MH59943; C.J.W.), by a Dana-Mahoney Fellowship from the Dana Foundation (W.-N.Z.), and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the 6th Framework Project EUCLOCK (A.K.).
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Zhao, WN., Malinin, N., Yang, FC. et al. CIPC is a mammalian circadian clock protein without invertebrate homologues. Nat Cell Biol 9, 268–275 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1539
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1539