[Molecular oscillatory machinery of circadian rhythms]

Many metabolic and physiological processes display daily rhythms oscillated by the internal circadian clock system. This rhythm is generated by interlocked transcription-(post) translation feedback loops of clock genes: the core oscillatory loop, being composed of CLOCK/BMAL1 heterodimer activating the expressions of PER and CRY that directly repress CLOCK/BMAL1, is accompanied by accessory loops consisted with REV-ERB nuclear receptor repressing Bmal1 or with DBP competing with E4BP4 on D-box site. These clock proteins are regulated by phosphorylation and ubiquitination (PER/CRY), and acetylation (CLOCK/BMAL1). Recently, a deacetylating protein SIRT1 mediated metabolic pathway is discovered to be interlocked with core oscillatory loop via Nampt expression, a late-limiting enzyme in NAD+ salvage pathway. Since many key-step enzymes of metabolisms are regulated by the circadian clock, circadian clock system may intimately link to cellular metabolism.