Journal Article

Role of the clock gene homolog aha-1 in the circadian system of Caenorhabditis elegans

Migliori, María Laura, Lamberti, Melisa Luciana, Goya, María Eugenia, Silva, Francisco, Bénard, Claire Y., Golombek, Diego A.

2025

Overview

Circadian rhythms are endogenous and allow organisms to adapt to external daily rhythms of light, temperature and other environmental factors. Circadian rhythms are regulated by a central clock, which is based on a transcription-translation feedback loop. The AHA-1 protein from possesses all conserved domains and shows high homology with the positive elements of the central clock loop, BMAL1 in mammals and CYCLE in . We studied the possible involvement of in the circadian system of adult using a bioluminescence-based circadian transcriptional reporter. We also performed qPCRs experiments to quantify the mRNA levels for the gene from bulk RNA extractions from adult worms. We observed robust luminescent circadian rhythms driven by the promoter. However, mRNA levels did not show circadian oscillation under the conditions tested. We also show that a mutation in generates a significantly longer endogenous period than the one in control strains, suggesting a role for this gene in the nematode circadian clock. The results indicate that the CYCLE/BMAL-1 homolog AHA-1 plays a key role in the generation of circadian rhythms in adult nematodes, mainly by regulating period length. These results suggest that the molecular control of circadian regulation in exhibits some similarities to other clock model systems.

• Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A
• Subject: C. elegans / circadian rhythms / clock gene / light / luminescence / Neuroscience / temperature