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Toshiyuki Okano

Publications and source records attributed to Toshiyuki Okano.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Lcg is a light-inducible and clock-controlled gene expressed in the chicken pineal gland.

The circadian clock is an autonomous biological clock that is entrainable to environmental 24-h cycles by receiving time cues such as light. Generally, light given at early and late subjective night, respectively, delays and advances the phase of the circadian oscillator. We previously searched for the chicken pineal genes that are induced by light in a phase-dependent manner. The present study undertook cDNA cloning and characterization of a gene whose expression was remarkably up-regulated by light at late subjective night. The mRNA level of this gene exhibited robust diurnal change in the pineal gland, with a peak in the early (subjective) day under light-dark cycles and constant dark condition, and hence it was designated Lcg (Light-inducible and Clock-controlled Gene). Chicken Lcg encodes a coiled-coil protein composed of 560 amino acid residues. Among chicken tissues, the pineal gland and the retina exhibited relatively high expression levels of LCG. LCG was colocalized with gamma-tubulin, a centrosomal protein, when expressed in COS7 cells, and LCG is the first example of a clock-related molecule being accumulated at the centrosome. Coimmunoprecipitation of LCG with gamma-tubulin in the chicken pineal lysate suggests a link between the circadian oscillator and the centrosomal function.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2006

Molecular cloning, mRNA expression, and immunocytochemical localization of a putative blue-light photoreceptor CRY4 in the chicken pineal gland.

In non-mammalian vertebrates, the pineal gland contains an endogenous circadian oscillator and serves as a photosensitive neuroendocrinal organ. To better understand the pineal phototransduction mechanism, we focused on the chicken putative blue-light photoreceptive molecule, Cryptochrome4 (cCRY4). Here we report the molecular cloning of pineal cCry4 cDNA, the in vivo expression of cCry4 mRNA, and the detection of cCRY4 protein. cCry4 is transcribed in a wide variety of chick tissues out of which the pineal gland and retina contain high levels of cCry4 mRNA. In the pineal gland, under 12 h light : 12 h dark cycles, the levels of both cCry4 mRNA and cCRY4 protein showed diurnal changes, and in cultured chick pineal cells, the cCry4 mRNA level was not only up-regulated by light but also controlled by circadian signals. Immunoblot analysis with a cCRY4-specific antibody detected cCRY4 in a soluble fraction of the pineal lysate. Immunocytochemistry revealed that cCRY4 was expressed in many parenchymal cells and a limited number of stromal cells. These cCRY4 features strikingly contrast with those of the chick pineal photoreceptor pinopsin, suggesting a possible temporal and/or spatial duplicity of the pineal photoreceptive system, the opsin- and CRY-based mechanisms.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Farnesylation of retinal transducin underlies its translocation during light adaptation.

G proteins are posttranslationally modified by isoprenylation: either farnesylation or geranylgeranylation. The gamma subunit of retinal transducin (Talpha/Tbetagamma) is selectively farnesylated, and the farnesylation is required for light signaling mediated by transducin in rod cells. However, whether and how this selective isoprenylation regulates cellular functions remain poorly understood. Here we report that knockin mice expressing geranylgeranylated Tgamma showed normal rod responses to dim flashes under dark-adapted conditions but exhibited impaired properties in light adaptation. Of note, geranylgeranylation of Tgamma suppressed light-induced transition of Tbetagamma from membrane to cytosol, and also attenuated its light-dependent translocation from the outer segment to the inner region, an event contributing to retinal light adaptation. These results indicate that, while the farnesylation of transducin is interchangeable with the geranylgeranylation in terms of the light signaling, the selective farnesylation is important for visual sensitivity regulation by providing sufficient but not excessive membrane anchoring of Tbetagamma.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMed2004

Negative control of circadian clock regulator E4BP4 by casein kinase Iepsilon-mediated phosphorylation.

Light-dependent transcriptional regulation of clock genes is a crucial step in the entrainment of the circadian clock. E4bp4 is a light-inducible gene in the chick pineal gland, and it encodes a bZIP protein that represses transcription of cPer2, a chick pineal clock gene. Here, we demonstrate that prolonged light period-dependent accumulation of E4BP4 protein is temporally coordinated with a delay of the rising phase of cPer2 in the morning. E4BP4 was phosphorylated progressively and then disappeared in parallel with induced cPer2 expression. Characterization of E4BP4 revealed Ser182, a phosphoacceptor site located at the amino-terminal border of the Ser/Thr cluster, which forms the phosphorylation motifs for casein kinase 1epsilon (CK1epsilon). CK1epsilon physically associated with E4BP4 and phosphorylated it. CK1epsilon-catalyzed phosphorylation of E4BP4 resulted in proteasomal proteolysis-dependent decrease of E4BP4 levels, while E4BP4 nuclear accumulation was attenuated by CK1epsilon in a kinase activity-independent manner. CK1epsilon-mediated posttranslational regulation was accompanied by reduction of the transcriptional repression executed by E4BP4. These results not only demonstrate a phosphorylation-dependent regulatory mechanism for E4BP4 function but also highlight the role of CK1epsilon as a negative regulator for E4BP4-mediated repression of cPer2.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2003

Chicktacking pineal clock.

Many tissues in non-mammalian vertebrates contain both photoreceptors and circadian clock systems. Among these photosensitive clock structures, the chick pineal gland has been characterized in detail from cellular and molecular aspects of the clock oscillation and entrainment. Analyses of the pineal photic-input pathway revealed a phase-shifting mechanism mediated by activation of G11, one of the Gq-type G-proteins. A major photoreceptive molecule, pinopsin, likely triggers this pathway by transmitting the light signal to the circadian oscillator. In the chick pineal oscillator, the transcription/translation-based autoregulatory feedback loop is composed of positive and negative elements (clock gene products) that are homologous to those identified in mammals. In the molecular cycling, a CACGTG E-box located in the promoter region of the negative element genes plays a central role in the transcriptional regulation. The phase of the molecular cycling is modulated by many regulatory components, among which E4BP4 and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) are closely associated with the photic entrainment. A light-responsive element was found in the promoter region of the Pinopsin gene, and the element included a CACGTG E-box, suggesting a novel role of the E-box as a point of convergence of light and circadian signals. These observations together point to general and unique features of the chick pineal circadian system among animal clocks.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Glucose down-regulates Per1 and Per2 mRNA levels and induces circadian gene expression in cultured Rat-1 fibroblasts.

In mammals, peripheral circadian clocks are present in most tissues, but little is known about how these clocks are synchronized with the ambient 24-h cycles. By using rat-1 fibroblasts, a model cell system of the peripheral clock, we found that an exchange of the culture medium triggered circadian gene expression that was preceded by slow down-regulation of Per1 and Per2 mRNA levels. This profile contrasts to the immediate up-regulation of these genes often observed for clock resetting. The screening of factor(s) responsible for the down-regulation revealed glucose as a key component triggering the circadian rhythm. The requirement of both glucose metabolism and RNA/protein synthesis for the down-regulation suggests the involvement of gene(s) immediately up-regulated by glucose metabolism. An analysis with high density oligonucleotide microarrays identified >100 glucose-regulated genes. We found among others immediately up-regulated genes encoding transcriptional regulators TIEG1, VDUP1, and HES1, in addition to cooperatively regulated genes that are associated with cholesterol biosynthesis and cell cycle. The immediate up-regulation of Tieg1 and Vdup1 expression was dependent on glucose metabolism but not on protein synthesis, suggesting that the transcriptional regulators mediate the glucose-induced down-regulation of Per1 and Per2 expression. These results illustrate a novel mode of peripheral clock resetting by external glucose, a major food metabolite.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Opsin-G11-mediated signaling pathway for photic entrainment of the chicken pineal circadian clock.

Light is a major environmental signal for entrainment of the circadian clock, but little is known about the intracellular phototransduction pathway triggered by light activation of the photoreceptive molecule(s) responsible for the phase shift of the clock in vertebrates. The chicken pineal gland and retina contain the autonomous circadian oscillators together with the photic entrainment pathway, and hence they represent useful experimental models for the clock system. Here we show the expression of G11alpha, an alpha subunit of heterotrimeric G-protein, in both tissues by cDNA cloning, Northern blot, and Western blot analyses. G11alpha immunoreactivity was colocalized with pinopsin in the chicken pineal cells and also with rhodopsin in the outer segments of retinal photoreceptor cells, suggesting functional coupling of G11alpha with opsins in the clock-containing photosensitive tissues. The physical interaction was examined by coimmunoprecipitation experiments, the results of which provided evidence for light- and GTP-dependent coupling between rhodopsin and G11alpha. To examine whether activation of endogenous G11 leads to a phase shift of the oscillator, Gq/11-coupled m1-type muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) was ectopically expressed in the cultured pineal cells. Subsequent treatment of the cells with carbamylcholine (CCh), an agonist of mAChR, induced phase-dependent phase shifts of the melatonin rhythm in a manner very similar to the effect of light. In contrast, CCh treatment induced no measurable effect on the rhythm of nontransfected (control) cells or cells expressing G(i/o)-coupled m2-type mAChR, indicating selectivity of the G-protein activation. Together, our results demonstrate the existence of a G11-mediated opsin-signaling pathway contributing to the photic entrainment of the circadian clock.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

A negative regulatory element required for light-dependent pinopsin gene expression.

In vertebrates, a variety of light-stimulated genes are distributed in the retina, the pineal gland, and the suprachiasmatic nucleus, but a cis-element(s) responsible for the light-dependent transcriptional regulation is left unexplored. Focusing on the pinopsin gene, a light-stimulated gene in the chick pineal gland, we performed a transcriptional analysis in the primary culture of the chick pineal cells that were transiently transfected with a luciferase reporter gene fused with various lengths of the 5' upstream region of the pinopsin gene. Light-dependent enhancer activity was detectable in the construct with the upstream region between -1156 and +31. Introduction of mutations within the 18 bp sequence at positions -1103 to -1086 (TGGCACGTGGGGTTCCTC), including a CACGTG E-box sequence, elevated the transcriptional activity in the dark and thereby abrogated the light dependency, suggesting that the 18 bp sequence is essential for a reduction of the transcriptional activity in the dark. In an electrophoretic mobility-shift assay, we identified a pineal nuclear factor(s) capable of binding to the 18 bp element in a sequence-specific manner. When a 49 bp fragment (-1122 to -1074) including the 18 bp sequence was placed upstream of the simian virus 40 promoter, the transcriptional activity was dramatically suppressed regardless of light conditions in the chick pineal cells, and a more pronounced repression was observed in nonpineal/nonphotosensory LMH and NIH 3T3 cells. These results suggest that the 18 bp element in the pinopsin promoter constitutes the binding site of a ubiquitous factor that serves for the transcriptional repression that is required, although not sufficient, for the light-dependent expression of pinopsin gene in the chick pinealocytes.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed2002

Judgments of noticeable differences in sound fields of concert halls caused by intensity variations in early reflections.

In concert halls early reflections combine with the direct sound and with reverberation to determine the subjective rating of a room's acoustics. Of interest is how variations in the amplitudes of these early reflections are related to the subjectively just-noticeable differences (jnd) in several important acoustical parameters for their wide range encountered in existing halls. Investigated were four subjective parameters, apparent source width (ASW), loudness, intimacy and clarity, which are related to the physical measurements, [1-IACC(E3)], G, ITDG, and C80, defined mathematically in Beranek [Concert and Opera Halls: How They Sound (Acoustical Society of America, New York, 1996)]. Forty-eight types of sound fields were chosen in which to make variations in the amplitudes of early reflections and were reproduced electro-acoustically by multiple loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. The results indicate that ASW and loudness are more sensitive to changes in the levels of early reflections, and were the primary parameters investigated. Although the number of subjects available with enough experience in listening classical music is limited and the measured jnd is an initial estimation, the jnd of [1-IACC(E3)] is measured as 0.065+/-0.015 in variations of sound field structures and the jnd of G was measured as 0.25+/-0.15 dB, which is consistent with the results of previous studies.

Acoustics↗
PubMed2002

Circadian clock system in the pineal gland.

The pineal gland is a neuroendocrine organ that functions as a central circadian oscillator in a variety of nonmammalian vertebrates. In many cases, the pineal gland retains photic input and endocrinal-output pathways both linked tightly to the oscillator. This contrasts well with the mammalian pineal gland equipped only with the output of melatonin production that is subject to neuronal regulation by central circadian oscillator located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Molecular studies on animal clock genes were performed first in Drosophila and later developed in rodents. More recently, clock genes such as Per, Cry, Clock, and Bmal have been found in a variety of vertebrate clock structures including the avian pineal gland. The profiles of the temporal change of the clock gene expression in the avian pineal gland are more similar to those in the mammalian SCN rather than to those in the mammalian pineal gland. Avian pineal gland and mammalian SCN seem to share a fundamental molecular framework of the clock oscillator composed of a transcription/translation-based autoregulatory feedback loop. The circadian time-keeping mechanism also requires several post-translational events, such as protein translocation and degradation processes, in which protein phosphorylation plays a very important role for the stable 24-h cycling of the oscillator and/or the photic-input pathway for entrainment of the clock.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Light-dependent changes in the chick pineal temperature and the expression of cHsp90 alpha gene: a potential contribution of in vivo temperature change to the photic-entrainment of the chick pineal circadian clock.

The circadian clock is entrained to the diurnal alteration of environmental conditions such as light and temperature, but the molecular mechanism underlying the entrainment is not fully understood. In the present study, we employed a differential display-based screening for a set of genes that are induced by light in the chick pineal gland, a structure of the central clock entrainable to both light and temperature changes. We found that the level of the mRNA encoding chicken heat shock protein 90 alpha (cHSP90 alpha) was rapidly elevated in the pineal gland within a 5-min exposure of chicks to light. Furthermore, the pineal cHsp90 alpha mRNA was expressed rhythmically under both 12-hr light/12-hr dark (LD) cycles and constant dark (DD) conditions. The total amount of the pineal cHSP90 alpha protein was, however, kept at nearly constant levels under LD cycles, and immunohistochemical analyses of the pineal cHSP90 alpha showed invariable localization at the cytoplasm throughout the day. In vivo measurement of the chick pineal temperature demonstrated its light-dependent and time-of-day-dependent change, and the profile was very similar to that of the pineal cHSP90 alpha mRNA level. These observations suggest that the in vivo temperature change regulates the expression of temperature-responsive genes including cHSP 90 alpha in the pineal gland. The temperature change may induce a phase-shift of the pineal clock, thereby facilitating its efficient entrainment to environmental LD cycles.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylates and negatively regulates basic helix-loop-helix-PAS transcription factor BMAL1.

In vertebrates, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) exhibits circadian activation in several clock structures and likely participates in the timekeeping mechanism of the circadian clock. Here we show that MAPK associates with a basic helix-loop-helix-PAS transcription factor BMAL1, a positive regulator for the autoregulatory feedback loop of the circadian oscillator. MAPK phosphorylates BMAL1 at multiple sites, including Ser-527, Thr-534, and Ser-599, in vitro, and BMAL1:CLOCK-induced transactivation from the E-box element is inhibited by expression of a constitutive active form of MAPK kinase in 293 cells. The inhibitory effect is reversed by coexpression of the kinase-dead mutant of MAPK or by mutation of BMAL1 at Thr-534. These results indicate that BMAL1:CLOCK-induced transcription is negatively regulated by MAPK-mediated phosphorylation of BMAL1 at Thr-534 and suggest a molecular link between circadian-activated MAPK and the clock oscillator.

ARNTL Transcription Factors↗