bims-ciryme Biomed News
on Circadian rhythms and metabolism
Issue of 2026–07–19
two papers selected by
Gabriela Da Silva Xavier, University of Birmingham
  1. Tanycyte BMAL1 regulates high-fat diet weight gain and shapes arcuate neurogenesis in female mice.
  2. Splicing of a core circadian clock gene regulates seasonal adaptations by a winter gating mechanism.
  1. Cell Rep. 2026 Jul 13. pii: S2211-1247(26)00763-1. [Epub ahead of print]45(7): 117685
    Tanycyte BMAL1 regulates high-fat diet weight gain and shapes arcuate neurogenesis in female mice.
    Daniel Maxim Iascone, Pavel Pivarshev, Jianing Yang, Mariela Lopez Valencia, Sara B Noya, Hongtong Lin, Corey D Holman, Ron C Anafi, Joseph L Bedont, Amita Sehgal.
      The hypothalamic radial-glia-like tanycyte population plays important and intertwined roles in metabolism, reproduction, and seasonality. Although these processes are circadian-regulated, the role of the molecular clock in tanycytes themselves has not yet been examined. We report that clock genes cycle with much higher amplitude in ventral tanycytes compared to more dorsal ependymocytes and that adult, tanycyte-specific knockout of core clock gene Bmal1 reduces diet-associated weight gain and fat mass in female mice. Fate mapping studies show that female mice have higher baseline tanycyte-derived neurogenesis than males, with many of the resulting neurons localizing to the feeding-relevant arcuate nucleus. Female but not male mice show reduced tanycyte-derived arcuate neurogenesis after adult Bmal1 deletion, with an increased proportion of newborn neurons acquiring a feeding-suppressing POMC neuropeptidergic fate. Together, our data support a role for tanycyte BMAL1 as a sex-specific regulator of body composition and hypothalamic adult neurogenesis.
    Keywords:  Bmal1; CP: neuroscience; arcuate; circadian; feeding; glia; hypothalamus; neurogenesis; sex; tanycyte; weight
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117685
  2. Sci Adv. 2026 Jul 17. 12(29): eaed4249
    Splicing of a core circadian clock gene regulates seasonal adaptations by a winter gating mechanism.
    Sergio Hidalgo, Rodrigo Del Rio, Christine A Tabuloc, Lorenzo A Perez Hernandez, Audrey L Berry, Yao D Cai, Kyle M Lewald, Joanna C Chiu.
      Organisms adjust their physiology and behavior in response to seasonal changes. The current working model indicates that the circadian clock is involved in this process, but the molecular mechanisms mediating the integration of seasonal cues are still unclear. Notably, the circadian neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), an output of the circadian clock, has been shown to alter its expression and activity in response to seasonal changes to facilitate seasonal adaptations in insects. Here, we show that the alternative splicing of a circadian clock gene, timeless (tim), regulates the seasonal responses through PDF in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that tim-sc, the predominant isoform in winter, is regulated by photoperiod, while the canonical tim-l isoform is not. In addition, we demonstrated that tim-sc is used to maintain physiology and behavior in a "winter lock" state by modulating PDF. Our results support a role of isoform-specific characteristics in providing circadian clock components with the ability to modulate seasonal physiology.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aed4249
This page is being maintained by Thomas Krichel. It was last updated on 2026‒07‒20 at 9:06.