A blind circadian clock in cavefish reveals that opsins mediate peripheral clock photoreception
2011
Cavallari, Nicola | Frigato, Elena | Vallone, Daniela | Froehlich, Nadine | López Olmeda, José Fernando | Foa, Augusto | Berti, Roberto | Sánchez Vázquez, Francisco Javier | Bertolucci, Cristiano | Foulkes, Nicholas Simon | Facultades, Departamentos, Servicios y Escuelas::Departamentos de la UMU::Fisiología
©<2011>. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ccby /4.0/ This document is the published version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in [PLoS Biology]. To access the final edited and published work see [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001142]
Show more [+] Less [-]The circadian clock is synchronized with the day-night cycle primarily by light. Fish represent fascinating models for deciphering the light input pathway to the vertebrate clock since fish cell clocks are regulated by direct light exposure. Here we have performed a comparative, functional analysis of the circadian clock involving the zebrafish that is normally exposed to the day-night cycle and a cavefish species that has evolved in perpetual darkness. Our results reveal that the cavefish retains a food-entrainable clock that oscillates with an infradian period. Importantly, however, this clock is not regulated by light. This comparative study pinpoints the two extra-retinal photoreceptors Melanopsin (Opn4m2) and TMT-opsin as essential upstream elements of the peripheral clock light input pathway.
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