Quantification of circadian rhythms in single cells

Bioluminescence techniques allow accurate monitoring of the circadian clock in single cells. We have analyzed bioluminescence data of Per gene expression in mouse SCN neurons and fibroblasts. From these data, we extracted parameters such as damping rate and noise intensity using two simple mathemati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS computational biology 2009-11, Vol.5 (11), p.e1000580-e1000580
Main Authors: Westermark, Pål O, Welsh, David K, Okamura, Hitoshi, Herzel, Hanspeter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological Clocks - physiology
Bioluminescence
Biophysics/Theory and Simulation
Cell Biology/Cell Signaling
Circadian rhythm
Circadian Rhythm - physiology
CLOCK Proteins - physiology
Computational Biology/Systems Biology
Control theory
Feedback
Fibroblasts - physiology
Gene expression
Gene Expression Regulation - physiology
Genetics and Genomics/Gene Expression
Luminescent Measurements - methods
Mathematical models
Mice
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Noise
Oscillators
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Summary:Bioluminescence techniques allow accurate monitoring of the circadian clock in single cells. We have analyzed bioluminescence data of Per gene expression in mouse SCN neurons and fibroblasts. From these data, we extracted parameters such as damping rate and noise intensity using two simple mathematical models, one describing a damped oscillator driven by noise, and one describing a self-sustained noisy oscillator. Both models describe the data well and enabled us to quantitatively characterize both wild-type cells and several mutants. It has been suggested that the circadian clock is self-sustained at the single cell level, but we conclude that present data are not sufficient to determine whether the circadian clock of single SCN neurons and fibroblasts is a damped or a self-sustained oscillator. We show how to settle this question, however, by testing the models' predictions of different phases and amplitudes in response to a periodic entrainment signal (zeitgeber).
ISSN:1553-7358
1553-734X
1553-7358
DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000580