RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Putative Transcription Factor with Seven Zinc-Finger Motifs Identified in the Developing Suprachiasmatic Nucleus by the Differential Display PCR Method
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 10176
OP 10183
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-22-10176.1999
VO 19
IS 22
A1 Maebayashi, Yoshiro
A1 Shigeyoshi, Yasufumi
A1 Takumi, Toru
A1 Okamura, Hitoshi
YR 1999
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/19/22/10176.abstract
AB The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a mammalian central circadian pacemaker. This nucleus develops in the last stage of fetal life and matures to make strong synaptic connections within 2 weeks of postnatal life to establish strong oscillation characteristics. To identify factors that initiate the circadian oscillation, we applied a differential display PCR method to developing SCN, and isolated a gene with seven zinc-finger motifs, Lot1, which encodes a gene that appeared at a very high level in the SCN during the early postnatal days. Lot1 mRNA first appeared at postnatal day 1 (P1) at a very high level, and the signal in the SCN continued to be very high until P10 and thereafter rapidly decreased until P20 and was expressed at a very faint level during adulthood.Lot1 mRNA expression was observed only in neurons of the dorsomedial SCN throughout the course of development. During the developmental stage, Lot1 mRNA expression shows a circadian rhythm with a peak in the day time and a trough at night time in both light–dark and constant dark conditions. These observations imply that Lot1 is the first identified putative transcription factor expressed only in the period of active synaptogenesis in the SCN, where Lot1 might play a role in establishing autonomous oscillation.