Fasting Imparts a Switch to Alternative Circadian Transcriptional Pathways in Liver and Muscle

The circadian gene expression in peripheral tissue displays rhythmicity which is driven by the circadian clock and feeding-fasting cycle in mammals. In this study, circadian transcriptome was performed to investigate how fasting influences circadian gene regulation. 8-week-old, male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to 24-hr fasting (FAST) or to ad libitum normal chow feeding (FED) under 12hr light/ 12hr dark schedule. Liver and gastrocnemius muscle were harvested every 4 hours over the circadian cycle at ZT0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 (n=3 per time point per group). Total RNA was extracted from liver and gastrocnemius muscle, and used for RNA-seq.

哺乳动物外周组织的节律基因表达呈现出由生物钟与摄食-禁食循环共同驱动的节律性。本研究开展节律转录组测序，以探究禁食对节律基因调控的影响。实验选用8周龄雄性C57BL/6小鼠，在12小时光照/12小时黑暗的光周期条件下，将其分为两组：一组接受24小时禁食（FAST组），另一组自由摄食普通饲料（FED组）。在昼夜节律周期内，于ZT0、4、8、12、16、20共6个时间点每隔4小时采集肝脏和腓肠肌组织，每组每个时间点设置3个生物学重复。从上述组织中提取总RNA，用于RNA-seq测序。