Background Circadian clocks coordinate an organism’s activities and regulate metabolic homeostasis in relation to daily environmental changes, most notably light/dark cycles. As in other organisms, the timekeeping mechanism in mammals depends on a self-sustaining transcriptional negative feedback loop with a built-in time delay in feedback inhibition. Although the time delay is essential for generating a slow, self-sustaining negative feedback loop with a period close to 24 hours, the exact mechanisms underlying the time delay are not known. Results We show here that RNA interference mediated by microRNAs (miRNAs) is an essential mechanism in generating the time delay. In Dicer-deficient (and thus miRNA-deficient) cells and mice, circadian rhythms were dramatically shortened (by ~2 hours), although the rhythms remained robust. The period shortening was caused by faster PER1 and PER2 translation in the Dicer-deficient cells. We also identified three specific miRNAs that regulate Per expression, and showed that knockdown of these miRNAs in wild-type cells also shortened the circadian period. Conclusions Consistent with the canonical function of miRNAs as translational modulators of target genes and their widespread roles in cell physiology, circadian rhythms are also modulated by miRNA-mediated RNA interference acting on posttranscriptional regulation of key clock genes. Our present study definitively shows that RNA interference is an important modulator of circadian rhythms by controlling the pace of PER synthesis, and presents a novel layer of regulation for the clock.

Summary Robustness in biology is the stability of phenotype under diverse genetic and/or environmental perturbations. The circadian clock has the remarkable stability of period and phase which—unlike other biological oscillators—is maintained over a wide range of conditions. Here we show that the high fidelity of the circadian system stems from robust degradation of the clock protein, PERIOD. We show that PERIOD degradation is regulated by balanced ubiquitination/deubiquitination, and disruption of the balance can destabilize the clock. In mice with loss-of-function mutation of the E3 ligase gene β-Trcp2, the balance of PERIOD degradation is perturbed, and the clock becomes dramatically unstable, presenting a unique behavioral phenotype unlike other circadian mutant animal models. We believe our data provide a molecular explanation for how circadian phases such as the wake-sleep onset times can become unstable in humans and present a unique mouse model to study human circadian disorders with unstable circadian rhythm phases.

The circadian clock is based on a transcriptional feedback loop with an essential time delay before feedback inhibition. Previous work has shown that PERIOD (PER) proteins generate circadian time cues through rhythmic nuclear accumulation of the inhibitor complex and subsequent interaction with the activator complex in the feedback loop. Although this temporal manifestation of the feedback inhibition is the direct consequence of PER’s cytoplasmic trafficking before nuclear entry, how this spatial regulation of the pacemaker affects circadian timing has been largely unexplored. Here we show that circadian rhythms, including wake-sleep cycles, are lengthened and severely unstable if the cytoplasmic trafficking of PER is disrupted by any disease condition that leads to increased congestion in the cytoplasm. Furthermore, we found that the time delay and robustness in the circadian clock are seamlessly generated by delayed and collective phosphorylation of PER molecules, followed by synchronous nuclear entry. These results provide clear mechanistic insight into why circadian and sleep disorders arise in such clinical conditions as metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases and aging, in which the cytoplasm is congested.

Self-sustaining oscillations are essential for diverse physiological functions such as the cell cycle, insulin secretion and circadian rhythms. Synthetic oscillators using biochemical feedback circuits have been generated in cell culture. These synthetic systems provide important insight into design principles for biological oscillators, but have limited similarity to physiological pathways. Here we report the generation of an artificial, mammalian circadian clock in vivo, capable of generating robust, tunable circadian rhythms. In mice deficient in Per1 and Per2 genes (thus lacking circadian rhythms), we artificially generate PER2 rhythms and restore circadian sleep/wake cycles with an inducible Per2 transgene. Our artificial clock is tunable as the period and phase of the rhythms can be modulated predictably. This feature, and other design principles of our work, might enhance the study and treatment of circadian dysfunction and broader aspects of physiology involving biological oscillators.

The obesity epidemic continues to escalate each year in the United States more than anywhere else in the world. The existing pharmaceutical and other nonsurgical treatments for morbid obesity produce suboptimal physiologic outcomes compared with those of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery. RYGB has been the gold standard of bariatric surgery because the beneficial long-term outcomes, which include sustainable weight loss and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) resolution, are far superior to those obtained with other bariatric surgeries. However, the current understanding of RYGB's mechanisms of actions remains limited and incomplete. There is an urgent need to understand these mechanisms as gaining this knowledge may lead to the development of innovative and less invasive procedures and/or medical devices, which can mirror the favorable outcomes of RYGB surgery. In this review, we highlight current observations of the metabolic and physiologic events following RYGB, with a particular focus on the role of the anatomical reconfiguration of the gastrointestinal tract after RYGB.