Bacterial bioluminescence regulates expression of a host cryptochrome gene in the squid-Vibrio symbiosis.

ABSTRACT: The symbiosis between the squid Euprymna scolopes and its luminous symbiont, Vibrio fischeri, is characterized by daily transcriptional rhythms in both partners and daily fluctuations in symbiont luminescence. In this study, we sought to determine whether symbionts affect host transcriptional rhythms. We identified two transcripts in host tissues (E. scolopes cry1 [escry1] and escry2) that encode cryptochromes, proteins that influence circadian rhythms in other systems. Both genes cycled daily in the head of the squid, with a pattern similar to that of other animals, in which expression of certain cry genes is entrained by environmental light. In contrast, escry1 expression cycled in the symbiont-colonized light organ with 8-fold upregulation coincident with the rhythms of bacterial lumine

SUBMITTER: Heath-Heckman EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3622930 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature