Summary
This chapter reviews the transcriptional-translational feedback loops (TTFLs) and cytosolic oscillators that drive mammalian circadian rhythms, including the roles of CLOCK, PER, and CRY proteins. Understanding these molecular mechanisms provides a foundation for chronotherapy design and optimizing light-based interventions that target circadian vulnerabilities in disease.
Key Findings
- CLOCK forms heteromeric complexes that activate expression of Per and Cry genes, forming the core negative feedback loop of the circadian clock.
- Circadian rhythms are confirmed as truly endogenous, driven by internal timing mechanisms rather than passive responses to environmental cycles.
- Transcriptional processes operate at all levels of the mammalian circadian system — from core feedback loops to physiological output rhythms — suggesting broad chronotherapeutic targets.
Categories
Sleep & Circadian Health: Reviews the molecular mechanisms of circadian oscillators, including TTFLs and cytosolic cycles, foundational to understanding circadian rhythm entrainment and disruption.
The Science of Light: Discusses entrainment mechanisms via gene induction, directly relevant to how light signals are transduced into circadian clock adjustments.
Author(s)
MH Hastings, JS O'Neill
Publication Year
2015
Number of Citations
3
Related Publications
Sleep & Circadian Health
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- The two‐process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice
- Strange vision: ganglion cells as circadian photoreceptors
The Science of Light
- Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock
- Color appearance models
- The mammalian circadian timing system: organization and coordination of central and peripheral clocks
- Diminished pupillary light reflex at high irradiances in melanopsin-knockout mice
- Melanopsin is required for non-image-forming photic responses in blind mice