Study on the Integration of Circadian Clock and Energy Metabolism

Abstract: Circadian clock system is a universal system in the biosphere. Taking mammals for example，circadian clock system finely controls multiple physiological events， such as sleep/wake cycle， blood pressure，circulating hormones， as well as the energy metabolism， which exhibit diurnal fluctuation. Thus， the circadian clock and energy metabolism are tightly coupled. In this paper， we summarized three well-known integration modes of these two physiological processes based on previous studies: (1) nuclear receptors， transcriptional factors/cofactors，and non-coding RNAs serve as the nodes， simultaneously regulate clock and metabolic processes， thus promote their integration. This integration mode is recognized as the “parallel type”; (2) as downstream effectors， clockcontrolled genes (CCGs) respond to the clock signals and in turn regulate metabolic processes， thus integrate these two pathways in a “series type” manner; (3) some metabolites respond to the upstream environmental stimuli and then simultaneously regulate clock and metabolic processes， or integrate circadian clock and energy metabolism by themselves. This integration mode is recognized as the “combination type”. Collectively， studies on the integration of circadian clock and energy metabolism provide new strategies for prevention and treatment of metabolic syndromes from the view of chronobiology.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2017.03.0002