Mutations in blind cavefish target the light-regulated circadian clock gene, period 2.

ABSTRACT: Light represents the principal signal driving circadian clock entrainment. However, how light influences the evolution of the clock remains poorly understood. The cavefish Phreatichthys andruzzii represents a fascinating model to explore how evolution under extreme aphotic conditions shapes the circadian clock, since in this species the clock is unresponsive to light. We have previously demonstrated that loss-of-function mutations targeting non-visual opsins contribute in part to this blind clock phenotype. Here, we have compared orthologs of two core clock genes that play a key role in photic entrainment, cry1a and per2, in both zebrafish and P. andruzzii. We encountered aberrantly spliced variants for the P. andruzzii per2 transcript. The most abundant transcript encodes a truncated prot

SUBMITTER: Ceinos RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5993827 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature