# overview
Most organisms from bacteria to humans exhibit 24-hours rhythms in their biochemistry, physiology and behavior. Best exemplified by the sleep/wake cycle, these rhythms are remarkably widespread and include in humans hormonal (e.g., melatonin, insulin, cortisol), metabolic (e.g., glucose, cholesterol), physiological and behavioral oscillations. In fact, most biological functions are rhythmic and are set to perform optimally at the most appropriate time of the day. For example, the human digestion process performs better during the day when we are supposed to eat.

These circadian rhythms are generated by "molecular clocks", which consist of a few "clock genes" interacting in feedback loops, and which drive the rhythmic expression of a large number of genes, i.e. ~10% of the transcriptome in any tissues. This wide impact of clock genes in regulating gene expression is underscored by the surprisingly large number of pathologies developed by clock-deficient mice. In addition to being arrhythmic, these mice indeed develop pathologies as diverse as mania-like behaviors, learning and memory defects, depression, drug addiction, insomnia, metabolic diseases, arthropathy, hematopoiesis defects and cancers.

Research in our lab aims at characterizing how circadian clocks and clock genes regulate gene expression to provide insights into how and why clock dysfuntion leads to a wide spectra of pathologies. To this end, we are using a wide-range of molecular and biochemical techniques to investigate the circadian clock function at the genome-wide level (e.g., next-generation sequencing). We are currently extending some of our recent results and focus on 1) how clock genes rhythmically regulate chromatin environment and 2) the mechanisms involved in rhythmic post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

# keywords[]
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

# keywords[]
1.1 Normal Biological Development And Functioning

# keywords[]
3102 Bioinformatics And Computational Biology

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Circadian Rhythm Signaling Peptides And Proteins

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3102 Bioinformatics And Computational Biology

# keywords[]
1.1 Normal Biological Development And Functioning

# keywords[]
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

# keywords[]
1.1 Normal Biological Development And Functioning

# keywords[]
Intracellular Signaling Peptides And Proteins

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Strasbourg - (Strasbourg, Alsace, France)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
Brandeis University - (Waltham, Massachusetts, United States)

# educationAndTraining[].organization.label
University of Strasbourg - (Strasbourg, Alsace, France)

# publications[].label
Clk post-transcriptional control denoises circadian transcription both temporally and spatially.

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Tissue-specific BMAL1 cistromes reveal that rhythmic transcription is associated with rhythmic enhancer-enhancer interactions.

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Rhythmic Food Intake Drives Rhythmic Gene Expression More Potently than the Hepatic Circadian Clock in Mice.

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Intergeniculate leaflets lesion delays but does not prevent the integration of photoperiodic change by the suprachiasmatic nuclei.

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Daily and circadian expression of neuropeptides in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of nocturnal and diurnal rodents.

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Melatonin induces Cry1 expression in the pars tuberalis of the rat.

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Cooperation between bHLH transcription factors and histones for DNA access.

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Transcriptional feedback and definition of the circadian pacemaker in Drosophila and animals.

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Nascent-Seq reveals novel features of mouse circadian transcriptional regulation.

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Clock-controlled rhythmic transcription: is the clock enough and how does it work?

# publications[].label
Cotranscriptional splicing efficiency differs dramatically between Drosophila and mouse.

# publications[].label
Modulation of photic resetting in rats by lesions of projections to the suprachiasmatic nuclei expressing p75 neurotrophin receptor.

# publications[].label
Lack of food intake during shift work alters the heart transcriptome and leads to cardiac fibrosis and inflammation in rats

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When brain clocks lose track of time: cause or consequence of neuropsychiatric disorders.

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Genome-wide discovery of the daily transcriptome, DNA regulatory elements and transcription factor occupancy in the monarch butterfly brain.

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Calbindin expression in the hamster suprachiasmatic nucleus depends on day-length.

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The Drosophila circadian network is a seasonal timer.

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Circadian clocks: the tissue is the issue.

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Dynamic PER repression mechanisms in the Drosophila circadian clock: from on-DNA to off-DNA.

# publications[].label
Photoperiod differentially regulates clock genes' expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of Syrian hamster.

# publications[].label
CLOCK:BMAL1 is a pioneer-like transcription factor.

# publications[].label
Single-Cell Multiomic Analysis of Circadian Rhythmicity in Mouse Liver.

# publications[].label
Guidelines for Genome-Scale Analysis of Biological Rhythms.

# publications[].label
Modulation of photic resetting in rats by lesions of projections to the suprachiasmatic nuclei expressing p75 neurotrophin receptor

# publications[].label
Regulation of circadian clock transcriptional output by CLOCK:BMAL1.

# publications[].label
Manipulation of Rhythmic Food Intake in Mice Using a Custom-Made Feeding System

# publications[].label
Nascent-Seq analysis of Drosophila cycling gene expression.

# publications[].publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

# publications[].label
Circadian transcription contributes to core period determination in Drosophila.

# publications[].label
Conflicting effects of exercise on the establishment of a short-photoperiod phenotype in Syrian hamster.

# publications[].label
Isoform-specific regulation of rhythmic gene expression by alternative polyadenylation

# publications[].label
Lack of food intake during shift work alters the heart transcriptome and leads to cardiac tissue fibrosis and inflammation in rats.

# publications[].label
Nascent-seq indicates widespread cotranscriptional RNA editing in Drosophila.

# publications[].label
Assaying the Drosophila negative feedback loop with RNA interference in S2 cells.

# publications[].label
Tissue-specific BMAL1 cistromes reveal that enhancer-enhancer interactions regulate rhythmic transcription

# publications[].label
A new twist on clock protein phosphorylation: a conformational change leads to protein degradation.

# publications[].label
TRITHORAX-dependent arginine methylation of HSP68 mediates circadian repression by PERIOD in the monarch butterfly.

# publications[].publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

# publications[].label
A role for microRNAs in the Drosophila circadian clock.

# publications[].label
Drosophila CLOCK target gene characterization: implications for circadian tissue-specific gene expression.

# publications[].label
Inhibition of hibernation by exercise is not affected by intergeniculate leaflets lesion in hamsters.

# publications[].label
The circadian clock stops ticking during deep hibernation in the European hamster.

# publications[].publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

# researcherOn[].label
Role of circadian rhythms in the susceptibility to Clostridium difficile infection

# researcherOn[].awardedBy.label
National Institutes of Health - (Bethesda, Maryland, United States)

# researcherOn[].awardedBy.preferredLabel
DHHS-NIH-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

# streetAddress
Texas A&M University; Biology; 3474 TAMU