Peroxiredoxins Are Conserved Markers of Circadian Rhythms

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2012 May 25

PMID 22622569

Citations 391

Authors

Rachel S Edgar

Edward W Green

Yuwei Zhao

Gerben van Ooijen

Maria Olmedo

Ximing Qin

Yao Xu

Min Pan

Utham K Valekunja

Kevin A Feeney

Elizabeth S Maywood

Michael H Hastings

Nitin S Baliga

Martha Merrow

Andrew J Millar

Carl H Johnson

Charalambos P Kyriacou

John S ONeill

Akhilesh B Reddy

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Cellular life emerged ∼3.7 billion years ago. With scant exception, terrestrial organisms have evolved under predictable daily cycles owing to the Earth's rotation. The advantage conferred on organisms that anticipate such environmental cycles has driven the evolution of endogenous circadian rhythms that tune internal physiology to external conditions. The molecular phylogeny of mechanisms driving these rhythms has been difficult to dissect because identified clock genes and proteins are not conserved across the domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota. Here we show that oxidation-reduction cycles of peroxiredoxin proteins constitute a universal marker for circadian rhythms in all domains of life, by characterizing their oscillations in a variety of model organisms. Furthermore, we explore the interconnectivity between these metabolic cycles and transcription-translation feedback loops of the clockwork in each system. Our results suggest an intimate co-evolution of cellular timekeeping with redox homeostatic mechanisms after the Great Oxidation Event ∼2.5 billion years ago.

Citing Articles

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