Temperature as a Universal Resetting Cue for Mammalian Circadian Oscillators

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 330; no. 6002; pp. 379 - 385
• Main Authors: Buhr, Ethan D, Yoo, Seung-Hee, Takahashi, Joseph S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 15.10.2010; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: ambient temperature; Animals; Arginine Vasopressin - metabolism; Benzhydryl Compounds - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Clocks - physiology; Bioluminescence; Body Temperature; Body Temperature Regulation; Body tissues; Calcium Channels, L-Type - physiology; Cell Communication; Chronobiology; Circadian rhythm; Circadian Rhythm - physiology; Circadian rhythms; Clocks; Cues; DNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Entrainment; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heat shock; Heat Shock Transcription Factors; heat stress; Heat-Shock Response; Lung - physiology; Lungs; Mammals; Mice; Networks; Neurons; Neurosciences; Oscillators; Phase shift; Pituitary Gland - physiology; Pyrrolidinones - pharmacology; Shock heating; Signal Transduction; Suprachiasmatic nucleus; Suprachiasmatic Nucleus - cytology; Suprachiasmatic Nucleus - physiology; Synchronization; Temperature; Temperature compensation; Temperature resistance; Tissue Culture Techniques; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transcription, Genetic - drug effects; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide - metabolism; Vertebrates; Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Suprachiasmatic nucleus; Body temperature; Central nervous system; Environmental factor; Biological rhythm; Hypothalamus; Circadian rhythm; Synchronization; Encephalon; Vertebrata; Heat; Sensitivity; Mammalia
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1195262

Environmental temperature cycles are a universal entraining cue for all circadian systems at the organismal level with the exception of homeothermic vertebrates. We report here that resistance to temperature entrainment is a property of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) network and is not a cell-autonomous property of mammalian clocks. This differential sensitivity to temperature allows the SCN to drive circadian rhythms in body temperature, which can then act as a universal cue for the entrainment of cell-autonomous oscillators throughout the body. Pharmacological experiments show that network interactions in the SCN are required for temperature resistance and that the heat shock pathway is integral to temperature resetting and temperature compensation in mammalian cells. These results suggest that the evolutionarily ancient temperature resetting response can be used in homeothermic animals to enhance internal circadian synchronization.