![]() The enzyme adjusts PERIOD levels by chemically modifying the protein at one of two sites, thereby adjusting its stability. This daily oscillation normally takes place over 24 hours, but that’s where CK1 enters the picture. It turns out that the timing of biological clocks is strongly influenced by the rise and fall of the PERIOD protein. In fact, CK1 was discovered in studies of golden hamsters more than 20 years ago after researchers noticed one hamster that routinely woke up much earlier than the others. Clock-altering mutations in CK1 and PERIOD have been known for many years. In the latest paper, Partch and her colleagues focused on two core clock components: an enzyme known as casein kinase 1 (CK1) and a protein called PERIOD. All this interaction helps to align waking hours and other aspects of our physiology to the 24-hour passage of day and night. They interact in specific ways to regulate transcription of about 15 percent of the genome over a 24-hour period. These clocks, found in cells and tissues throughout the body, are composed of specialized sets of proteins. It builds on decades of research into biological clocks, which help to control sleeping and waking, rest and activity, fluid balance, body temperature, cardiac rate, oxygen consumption, and even the secretions of endocrine glands. This work, published recently in the journal eLIFE, comes from Carrie Partch, University of California, Santa Cruz, and her colleagues at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and the University of California, San Diego. They also may lead to new treatments designed to reset the clock in people struggling with sleep disorders, jet lag, or night-shift work. These new atomic-level details, shared from fruit flies to humans, may help to explain how more subtle clock variations predispose people to follow different sleep patterns. Why is this? An NIH-funded team has some new clues based on evidence showing how a molecular “switch” wired into the biological clocks of extreme early risers leads them to operate on a daily cycle of about 20 hours instead of a full 24-hour, or circadian (Latin for “about a day”), cycle. Others are night owls who can’t seem to get to bed until well after midnight and prefer to sleep in. Some people are early risers, wide awake at the crack of dawn. Francis Collins Caption: Casein kinase 1 (CK1) regulates PERIOD, a core protein in the biological clock of people.Ĭredit: Clarisse Ricci, University of California, San Diego ![]() ![]() Early Riser or Night Owl? New Study May Help to Explain the Difference ![]()
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