75 research outputs found
Robustness of circadian clocks to daylight fluctuations: hints from the picoeucaryote Ostreococcus tauri
The development of systemic approaches in biology has put emphasis on
identifying genetic modules whose behavior can be modeled accurately so as to
gain insight into their structure and function. However most gene circuits in a
cell are under control of external signals and thus quantitative agreement
between experimental data and a mathematical model is difficult. Circadian
biology has been one notable exception: quantitative models of the internal
clock that orchestrates biological processes over the 24-hour diurnal cycle
have been constructed for a few organisms, from cyanobacteria to plants and
mammals. In most cases, a complex architecture with interlocked feedback loops
has been evidenced. Here we present first modeling results for the circadian
clock of the green unicellular alga Ostreococcus tauri. Two plant-like clock
genes have been shown to play a central role in Ostreococcus clock. We find
that their expression time profiles can be accurately reproduced by a minimal
model of a two-gene transcriptional feedback loop. Remarkably, best adjustment
of data recorded under light/dark alternation is obtained when assuming that
the oscillator is not coupled to the diurnal cycle. This suggests that coupling
to light is confined to specific time intervals and has no dynamical effect
when the oscillator is entrained by the diurnal cycle. This intringuing
property may reflect a strategy to minimize the impact of fluctuations in
daylight intensity on the core circadian oscillator, a type of perturbation
that has been rarely considered when assessing the robustness of circadian
clocks
Partial costs of global climate change adaptation for the supply of raw industrial and municipal water: a methodology and application
Despite growing recognition of the importance of climate change adaptation, few global estimates of the costs involved are available for the water supply sector. We present a methodology for estimating partial global and regional adaptation costs for raw industrial and domestic water supply, for a limited number of adaptation strategies, and apply the method using results of two climate models. In this paper, adaptation costs are defined as those for providing enough raw water to meet future industrial and municipal water demand, based on country-level demand projections to 2050. We first estimate costs for a baseline scenario excluding climate change, and then additional climate change adaptation costs. Increased demand is assumed to be met through a combination of increased reservoir yield and alternative backstop measures. Under such controversial measures, we project global adaptation costs of 73 bn p.a.), which supports the notion of mainstreaming climate change adaptation into broader policy aims. The method provides a tool for estimating broad costs at the global and regional scale; such information is of key importance in international negotiations. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd
Coupling of a Core Post-Translational Pacemaker to a Slave Transcription/Translation Feedback Loop in a Circadian System
Analysis of the cyanobacterial circadian biological clock reveals a complex interdependence between a transcription/translation feedback loop and a biochemical oscillator
Kernel Architecture of the Genetic Circuitry of the Arabidopsis Circadian System
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.Comment: Supplementary material is available at the journal websit
Genome-Wide Analysis of Light- and Temperature-Entrained Circadian Transcripts in Caenorhabditis elegans
Transcriptional profiling experiments identify light- and temperature-entrained circadian transcripts in C. elegans
Genetic variants in RBFOX3 are associated with sleep latency
Time to fall asleep (sleep latency) is a major determinant of sleep quality. Chronic, long sleep latency is a major characteristic of sleep-onset insomnia and/or delayed sleep phase syndrome. In this study we aimed to discover common polymorphisms that contribute to the genetics of sleep latency. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) including 2 572 737 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) established in seven European cohorts including 4242 individuals. We found a cluster of three highly correlated variants (rs9900428, rs9907432 and rs7211029) in the RNA-binding protein fox-1 homolog 3 gene (RBFOX3) associated with sleep latency (P-values=5.77 × 10-08, 6.59 × 10- 08 and 9.17 × 10- 08). These SNPs were replicated in up to 12 independent populations including 30 377 individuals (P-values=1.5 × 10- 02, 7.0 × 10- 03 and 2.5 × 10- 03; combined meta-analysis P-values=5.5 × 10-07, 5.4 × 10-07 and 1.0 × 10-07). A functional prediction of RBFOX3 based on co-expression with other genes shows that this gene is predominantly expressed in brain (P-value=1.4 × 10-316) and the central nervous system (P-value=7.5 × 10- 321). The predicted function of RBFOX3 based on co-expression analysis with other genes shows that this gene is significantly involved in the release cycle of neurotransmitte
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