Data from: Temporal transcriptomics suggest that twin-peaking genes reset the clock

The mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) drives daily rhythmic behavior
and physiology, yet a detailed understanding of its coordinated
transcriptional programmes is lacking. To reveal the finer details of
circadian variation in the mammalian SCN transcriptome we combined
laser-capture microdissection and RNA-seq over a 24-hour light/dark cycle.
We show that 7-times more genes exhibited a classic sinusoidal expression
signature than previously observed in the SCN. Another group of 766 genes
unexpectedly peaked twice, near both the start and end of the dark phase;
this twin-peaking group is significantly enriched for synaptic
transmission genes that are crucial for light-induced phase shifting of
the circadian clock. 341 intergenic non-coding RNAs, together with novel
exons of annotated protein-coding genes, including Cry1, also show
specific circadian expression variation. Overall, our data provide an
important chronobiological resource (www.wgpembroke.com/shiny/SCNseq/) and
allow us to propose that transcriptional timing in the SCN is gating clock
resetting mechanisms.

哺乳动物视交叉上核（suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN）驱动每日节律性行为与生理活动，但对其协同转录程序的详细认知仍有欠缺。为揭示哺乳动物SCN转录组中昼夜节律变化的精细特征，我们在24小时光暗周期内结合了激光捕获显微切割（laser-capture microdissection）与RNA测序（RNA-seq）技术。研究发现，呈现经典正弦表达特征的基因数量是此前SCN研究中观测到的7倍。另有766个基因意外呈现双峰表达模式——分别在暗期起始与结束时达到峰值；这一双峰基因群显著富集突触传递相关基因，而此类基因对光诱导的生物钟相位偏移至关重要。341个基因间非编码RNA（intergenic non-coding RNAs），以及包括Cry1在内的已注释蛋白编码基因的新外显子，同样表现出特异性的昼夜节律表达变化。总体而言，我们的数据提供了重要的时间生物学（chronobiological）资源（网址：www.wgpembroke.com/shiny/SCNseq/），并支持我们提出的假说：SCN中的转录时序调控着生物钟重置机制。