Impact of microbial exposure on the zebrafish circadian clock

• Grant number: 23/09352-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 08, 2024
• End date: May 07, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Niels Olsen Saraiva Câmara
• Grantee: Mariana Tominaga Pereira
• Supervisor: Jacqueline Kimmey
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/02682-0 - Co-culture of human tumor cells with zebrafish blastoderm cells: study of the tumor microenvironment, BP.IC

Abstract

The circadian rhythms are a cell-autonomous process that regulates the daily cycles of living species. In vertebrates, the circadian rhythms are controlled by an internal clock in a transcription-translation loop where the master genes clock and bmal induce the transcription of clock target genes, including its own repressors PER and CRY. Emerging studies have shown a relationship between the clock and microbial infections, but the mechanisms behind it are not known. The zebrafish is an interesting model to study the interaction between the circadian clock and infection, as many components of the mammalian clock, as well as the mammalian immune system, are conserved in this organism. Its genetic tractability allows us to generate reporter lines to study this system. Moreover, all the cells of its organism can respond directly to light, which generates a potential to also use the cells or organs derived from the animals. In this sense, the zebrafish can help us develop tools that allow us to study the effect of microbial exposure on the circadian clock in vivo and in vitro. Thus, this study aims to generate cell lines derived from zebrafish luminescence reporters for circadian-related genes, with the objective of studying the effects of bacteria exposure on the circadian clock on these cells and compare it with the whole organism. We hope that these tools help us to answer key questions on the mechanisms related with circadian changes induced by microorganisms. (AU)