Connection studies between biological clock and glycogen metabolism regulation in Neurospora crassa

• Grant number: 13/14513-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date until: October 01, 2013
• End date until: June 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Celia Bertolini
• Grantee: Stela Virgilio
• Supervisor: Deborah Bell-Pedersen
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Texas A&M University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/09435-7 - Correlation between biological clock and glycogen metabolism in Neurospora crassa. Functional analysis of proteins/transcription factors involved in these processes., BP.DR

Abstract

Metabolism of storage carbohydrate, such as glycogen, is under regulation of the circadian clock in mammals, and dysfunction of either glucose metabolism or clock regulation is associated with insulin resistance and diabetes. Glycogen is synthesized and degraded as a function of the organism metabolism status and the endogenous clock determines properties of this regulation. Regulation of storage carbohydrates by the circadian clock allows the organism to anticipate the availability of nutrients and prepare itself to respond to variable amounts of energy throughout the day.Stela's project is part of a Thematic Project that aims to investigate the biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of glycogen metabolism in the model organism Neurospora crassa. The Project was proposed based on previous results from our lab, which showed that transcription factors that were either light induced or clock regulated were also involved in the glycogen metabolism regulation. Among the transcription factors identified were the proteins RCO-1, CSP-1, CTF-1±, SUB-1, and SAH-2. During the past few years, the literature has been showing how do organisms sense metabolic and nutrient status to set their biological clocks. The information led us to start investigating whether there is a connection between the energy of the glycogen metabolism and the circadian clock in N. crassa. We demonstrated that glycogen accumulation is rhythmic with periods of 22-24h, characteristic of the N. crassa circadian clock. Additional results support the existence of the connection between glycogen metabolism and biological clock in N. crassa, what led us to propose the PhD project and to start a collaborative work with Dr. Deborah Bell-Pedersen from Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. She has been working on circadian clock in N. crassa with a large knowledge on the molecular mechanisms that govern the N. crassa clock.Finally, the molecular characterization of the transcription factor SAH-2 was also proposed. SAH-2 is described as a direct target of the WCC complex and our objective is to investigate how this protein might be acting in the link between glycogen metabolism and clock in N. crassa. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BAEK, MOKRYUN; VIRGILIO, STELA; LAMB, TERESA M.; IBARRA, ONEIDA; ANDRADE, JUVANA MOREIRA; GONCALVES, RODRIGO DUARTE; DOVZHENOK, ANDREY; LIM, SOOKKYUNG; BELL-PEDERSEN, DEBORAH; BERTOLINI, MARIA CELIA; et al. Circadian clock regulation of the glycogen synthase (gsn) gene by WCC is critical for rhythmic glycogen metabolism in Neurospora crassa. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. 116, n. 21, p. 10435-10440, MAY 21 2019. (13/14513-0, 13/24705-3)