麻豆淫院

Biological rhythms aren't just for sleep. In the tiny worm C. elegans, researchers in the Grosshans lab and the Computational Biology Platform of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have found thousands of genes that turn on and off in precise patterns during development.

This rhythmic activity unfolds like an orchestra, where every gene plays its part at exactly the right moment. These rhythms happen in multiple tissues鈥攕kin-like epithelial cells, specialized muscles, and glands鈥攅ach expressing its own unique set of genes.

Within each tissue, genes peak at different times. This timing ensures every gene acts exactly when it's needed. Gene activity rhythms are controlled by chromatin鈥攖he tightly packed DNA that opens and closes like a gate. This rhythmic chromatin opening precisely matches gene expression cycles.

The researchers built a mathematical model that predicts when and how strongly chromatin opens by using information from just nine transcription factors鈥攑roteins that bind DNA and turn genes on or off. Depleting one of these transcription factors in C. elegans confirmed the model's predictions, showing it accurately forecasts changes in chromatin dynamics and gene expression.

The findings, in Molecular Systems Biology, reveal a direct link between chromatin timing and gene rhythms, with potential implications for understanding human biological clocks.