Circadian and Sleep regulation of synaptic RNA

Circadian rhythms are present across almost all species and affect several physiological and behavioral aspects of living organisms. The evolutionary advantage conferred by these rhythms could be their anticipatory properties. In the nervous system, anticipation is particularly interesting due to the spatiotemporal constraints derived by the highly compartmentalized neuronal structure. Previous work has confirmed that 900 genes are expressed in the mouse forebrain in robustly rhythmic fashion, and 180 transcripts are equally robustly circadian at the synapse. Interestingly, mRNAs are found in higher amounts at the end of the dark phase, and decrease exponentially during the first hours of light. This pattern resembles the “sawtooth” pattern of homeostatic sleep pressure. To further characterize this phenotype we propose to compare the synaptic transcriptome of sleep deprived mice to its control base line. This work would shed light into the emerging field of synaptic RNA transport and translation and its regulatory inputs. Hopefully, the results will yield to two different findings: the circadian and activity potential to regulate synaptic transport of RNA and the classification of transcripts deferentially regulated by both processes.