Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Many biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes such as glucose metabolism, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycles show regular daily rhythms. These circadian rhythms are adjusted to the environmental light-dark cycle by a central pacemaker located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in order for the processes to occur at appropriate times of day. Here, we investigated the expression and function of a synaptic organizing protein, C1QL3, in the SCN. We found that C1ql3 is robustly expressed in the SCN. C1ql3 knockout mice have a reduced density of excitatory synapses in the SCN. In addition, these mice exhibited less consolidated activity to the active portions of the day and period lengthening following a 15-minute phase-delaying light pulse. These data identify C1QL3 as a signaling molecule that is highly expressed in SCN neurons, where it contributes to the formation and/or maintenance of glutamatergic synapses and plays a role in circadian behaviors, which may include circadian aftereffects.

Comments

J Biol Rhythms. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 Nov 1. Published in final edited form as: J Biol Rhythms. 2017 Jun; 32(3): 222–236. Published online 2017 May 29. doi: 10.1177/0748730417704766 PMCID: PMC5664174 NIHMSID: NIHMS913485

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