Restricted feeding uncouples circadian oscillators in peripheral tissues from the central pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus

  1. Francesca Damiola1,
  2. Nguyet Le Minh1,
  3. Nicolas Preitner,
  4. Benoı̂t Kornmann,
  5. Fabienne Fleury-Olela, and
  6. Ueli Schibler2
  1. Département de Biologie Moléculaire, Sciences II, Université de Genève, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland

Abstract

In mammals, circadian oscillators exist not only in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which harbors the central pacemaker, but also in most peripheral tissues. It is believed that the SCN clock entrains the phase of peripheral clocks via chemical cues, such as rhythmically secreted hormones. Here we show that temporal feeding restriction under light–dark or dark–dark conditions can change the phase of circadian gene expression in peripheral cell types by up to 12 h while leaving the phase of cyclic gene expression in the SCN unaffected. Hence, changes in metabolism can lead to an uncoupling of peripheral oscillators from the central pacemaker. Sudden large changes in feeding time, similar to abrupt changes in the photoperiod, reset the phase of rhythmic gene expression gradually and are thus likely to act through a clock-dependent mechanism. Food-induced phase resetting proceeds faster in liver than in kidney, heart, or pancreas, but after 1 wk of daytime feeding, the phases of circadian gene expression are similar in all examined peripheral tissues.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • 1 These authors contributed equally to this work.

  • 2 Corresponding author.

  • E-MAIL ueli.schibler{at}molbio.unige.ch; FAX 41-22-702-6868.

  • Article and publication are at www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.183500.

    • Received June 26, 2000.
    • Accepted October 9, 2000.
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