RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Repeated evolution of circadian clock dysregulation in cavefish populations
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.01.14.906628
DO 10.1101/2020.01.14.906628
A1 Katya L. Mack
A1 James B. Jaggard
A1 Jenna L. Persons
A1 Courtney N. Passow
A1 Bethany A. Stanhope
A1 Estephany Ferrufino
A1 Dai Tsuchiya
A1 Sarah E. Smith
A1 Brian D. Slaughter
A1 Johanna Kowalko
A1 Nicolas Rohner
A1 Alex C. Keene
A1 Suzanne E. McGaugh
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/15/2020.01.14.906628.abstract
AB Circadian rhythms are nearly ubiquitous throughout nature, suggesting they are critical for survival in diverse environments. Organisms inhabiting environments with arrhythmic days, such as caves, offer a unique opportunity to study the evolution of circadian rhythms in response to changing ecological pressures. Here we demonstrate that the cave environment has led to the repeated disruption of the biological clock across multiple populations of Mexican cavefish, with the circadian transcriptome showing widespread reductions in rhythmicity and changes to the timing of the activation/repression of genes in the core pacemaker. Then, we investigate the function of two genes with decreased rhythmic expression in cavefish. Mutants of these genes phenocopy reductions in sleep seen in multiple cave populations, suggesting a link between circadian dysregulation and sleep reduction. Altogether, our results reveal that evolution in an arrhythmic environment has resulted in dysregulation to the biological clock across multiple populations by diverse molecular mechanisms.