TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dusik, Verena
A1  - Senthilan, Pingkalai R.
A1  - Mentzel, Benjamin
A1  - Hartlieb, Heiko
A1  - Wülbeck, Corina
A1  - Yoshii, Taishi
A1  - Raabe, Thomas
A1  - Helfrich-Förster, Charlotte
T1  - The MAP Kinase p38 Is Part of Drosophila melanogaster's Circadian Clock
JF  - PLoS Genetics
N2  - All organisms have to adapt to acute as well as to regularly occurring changes in the environment. To deal with these major challenges organisms evolved two fundamental mechanisms: the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, a major stress pathway for signaling stressful events, and circadian clocks to prepare for the daily environmental changes. Both systems respond sensitively to light. Recent studies in vertebrates and fungi indicate that p38 is involved in light-signaling to the circadian clock providing an interesting link between stress-induced and regularly rhythmic adaptations of animals to the environment, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms remained largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate by immunocytochemical means that p38 is expressed in Drosophila melanogaster's clock neurons and that it is activated in a clock-dependent manner. Surprisingly, we found that p38 is most active under darkness and, besides its circadian activation, additionally gets inactivated by light. Moreover, locomotor activity recordings revealed that p38 is essential for a wild-type timing of evening activity and for maintaining ∼ 24 h behavioral rhythms under constant darkness: flies with reduced p38 activity in clock neurons, delayed evening activity and lengthened the period of their free-running rhythms. Furthermore, nuclear translocation of the clock protein Period was significantly delayed on the expression of a dominant-negative form of p38b in Drosophila's most important clock neurons. Western Blots revealed that p38 affects the phosphorylation degree of Period, what is likely the reason for its effects on nuclear entry of Period. In vitro kinase assays confirmed our Western Blot results and point to p38 as a potential "clock kinase" phosphorylating Period. Taken together, our findings indicate that the p38 MAP Kinase is an integral component of the core circadian clock of Drosophila in addition to playing a role in stress-input pathways.
KW  - in vitro kinase assay
KW  - biological locomotion
KW  - circadian oscillators
KW  - MAPK signaling cascades
KW  - circadian rhythms
KW  - drosophila melanogaster
KW  - neurons
KW  - phosphorylation
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119433
SN  - 1553-7404
VL  - 10
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Szabó, Áron
A1  - Papin, Christian
A1  - Zorn, Daniela
A1  - Ponien, Prishila
A1  - Weber, Frank
A1  - Raabe, Thomas
A1  - Rouyer, François
T1  - The CK2 Kinase Stabilizes CLOCK and Represses Its Activity in the Drosophila Circadian Oscillator
JF  - PLoS Biology
N2  - Phosphorylation is a pivotal regulatory mechanism for protein stability and activity in circadian clocks regardless of their evolutionary origin. It determines the speed and strength of molecular oscillations by acting on transcriptional activators and their repressors, which form negative feedback loops. In Drosophila, the CK2 kinase phosphorylates and destabilizes the PERIOD (PER) and TIMELESS (TIM) proteins, which inhibit CLOCK (CLK) transcriptional activity. Here we show that CK2 also targets the CLK activator directly. Downregulating the activity of the catalytic alpha subunit of CK2 induces CLK degradation, even in the absence of PER and TIM. Unexpectedly, the regulatory beta subunit of the CK2 holoenzyme is not required for the regulation of CLK stability. In addition, downregulation of \(CK2\alpha\) activity decreases CLK phosphorylation and increases per and tim transcription. These results indicate that CK2 inhibits CLK degradation while reducing its activity. Since the CK1 kinase promotes CLK degradation, we suggest that CLK stability and transcriptional activity result from counteracting effects of CK1 and CK2.
KW  - negative feedback loop
KW  - PER-TIM complex
KW  - posttranslational regulation
KW  - transcription factor
KW  - in-vivo
KW  - behavioral rhythms
KW  - proteins period
KW  - beta-subunit
KW  - phosphorylation
KW  - gene
KW  - CT, circadian time
KW  - LD, light:dark
KW  - DD, constant darkness
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-127234
SN  - 1545-7885
VL  - 11
IS  - 8
ER  -