Construction of a rhythm transfer system that mimics the cellular clock

ACS Chem Biol. 2012 Nov 16;7(11):1817-21. doi: 10.1021/cb300432s. Epub 2012 Sep 14.

Abstract

Creation of an artificial oscillating gene expression system is one of the most challenging issues in synthetic biology. Here, we constructed a simple system to manipulate gene expression patterns to be circadian, reflecting the intrinsic cellular clock, by fusing a core clock protein, BMAL1 or CLOCK, with a zinc finger-type DNA binding domain. Circadian rhythmic gene expression was induced only when the target gene contained zinc finger-binding sequences. To our knowledge, this simple approach is the first to manipulate gene expression patterns into circadian rhythms and would be applicable to various endogenous genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • ARNTL Transcription Factors / genetics*
  • Animals
  • CLOCK Proteins / genetics*
  • Circadian Rhythm*
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Mice
  • NIH 3T3 Cells
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Transcriptional Activation*
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / genetics
  • Zinc Fingers*

Substances

  • ARNTL Transcription Factors
  • Bmal1 protein, mouse
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A
  • CLOCK Proteins