title: Differential contribution of rod and cone circadian clocks in driving retinal melatonin rhythms in Xenopus.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although an endogenous circadian clock located in the retinal photoreceptor layer governs various physiological events including melatonin rhythms in Xenopus laevis, it remains unknown which of the photoreceptors, rod and/or cone, is responsible for the circadian regulation of melatonin release.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We selectively disrupted circadian clock function in either the rod or cone photoreceptor cells by generating transgenic Xenopus tadpoles expressing a dominant-negative CLOCK (XCLΔQ) under the control of a rod or cone-specific promoter. Eyecup culture and continuous melatonin measurement revealed that circadian rhythms of melatonin release were abolished in a majority of the rod-specific XCLΔQ transgenic tadpoles, although the percentage of arrhythmia was lower than that of transgenic tadpole eyes expressing XCLΔQ in both rods and cones. In contrast, whereas a higher percentage of arrhythmia was observed in the eyes of the cone-specific XCLΔQ transgenic tadpoles compare to wild-type counterparts, the rate was significantly lower than in rod-specific transgenics. The levels of the transgene expression were comparable between these two different types of transgenics. In addition, the average overall melatonin levels were not changed in the arrhythmic eyes, suggesting that CLOCK does not affect absolute levels of melatonin, only its temporal expression pattern.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that although the Xenopus retina is made up of approximately equal numbers of rods and cones, the circadian clocks in the rod cells play a dominant role in driving circadian melatonin rhythmicity in the Xenopus retina, although some contribution of the clock in cone cells cannot be excluded.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America. hayasaka@med.kindai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hayasaka
authors.forename: Silvia I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: LaRue
authors.forename: Carla B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000235:genetics; D057906:Circadian Clocks; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005838:Genotype; D008550:Melatonin / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012160:Retina / Q000378:metabolism; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D019076:Transgenes; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D008550:Melatonin