Regulation of circadian locomotor rhythm by miR-263a

ABSTRACT

The circadian clock is a rhythmic oscillator driving various physiological and behavioral processes that adapt to daily environmental changes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that play an important role in post-transcriptional regulation. Although recent work has demonstrated that miRNAs are involved in development and disease, their function in the adult circadian locomotor rhythm still needs to be extensively characterized. In this study, we identified the miR-263a as an important regulator of Drosophila circadian locomotor rhythm, with miR-263a expression in LNv clock neurons. The overexpression of miR-263a in clock neurons lengthens the circadian period, while its mutant Bereft²⁴ shortens the circadian period. In addition, downregulation of miR-263a also dramatically attenuates the morning activity peak as well as circadian rhythm robustness. Moreover, slo and homer are identified as the potential targets of the miR-263a. Together, these results establish that the miR-263a is an important regulator of circadian locomotor rhythm.

KEYWORDS:

• Drosophila
• miRNA
• circadian rhythm
• miR-263a

Acknowledgments

We thank Jeffrey Price (University of Missouri at Kansas City) for revision of this manuscript. We thank Dr. Steve Cohen for the Bereft²⁴ and Δ263a-Gal4 fly strains. We thank the Bloomington stock Center for various fly stocks. We also thank the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank for PDF antibodies.

Author contributions

Z.Z. supervised the project and designed the experiments. X.N., W.C., and W.B. performed the experiments and analysis. Z.Z., W.C., and X.N. edited the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by grants from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 31730076 and 31572317) to Zhangwu Zhao, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31601894 and 31970461) and the Fujian Natural Science Foundation (grant. number 2017J0106) to Wenfeng Chen.