Expression oscillation of natural antisense transcripts in the circadian clock

Backgrounds: Circadian clock enables organisms to perceive regular environmental changesand acquire proper adaptations. This system is essential for synchronizing biological processeswith day/night cycles. So, misalignment of environmental and endogenous circadian rhythms isassociated with different diseases. Noncoding transcripts including antisense RNAs aresubstantial components of the molecular clocks. Generally, the antisense transcripts participate inthe regulation of gene expression. PER۲AS and CRY۱AS are the only identified NaturalAntisense Transcripts (NAT) related to the core clock genes, which overlap with the PER۲ andCRY۱ genes, respectively. In this research, we hypothesized that PER۲AS and CRY۱AS like theother clock genes, display the oscillatory pattern in a ۲۴-hour period and affect the expression ofPER۲ and CRY۱.Materials and Methods: Initially, the A۵۴۹ cell line was grown under standard conditions. Thehorse serum shock method was applied to stimulate the clock genes expression oscillation. In thenext step, RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis was performed. Then, the expression fluctuationsof PER۲AS, CRY۱AS, PER۲, and CRY۱ were evaluated with real-time PCR technique.Results: Our findings indicated that PER۲AS and CRY۱AS had similar oscillatory behaviors withtheir sense strand during ۲۴-hour period.Conclusion: We suggested that PER۲AS and CRY۱AS transcripts possibly by preventing theinteraction of miRNAs with PER۲ and CRY۱ mRNAs influence their expression, positively.Therefore, more studies are needed on the pathological and biological significance of theseantisense transcripts.

کلیدواژه ها:

Natural antisense transcripts ، CRY۱ ، PER۲ ، CRY۱AS ، PER۲AS