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Scientists have discovered the gene responsible for starting the biological clock every day
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
Almost all processes occurring in the human body are subject to the biological clock, including the change of sleep-wake cycles.
Scientists from the Salk Institute (USA) have discovered a gene responsible for the daily start of the biological clock. This discovery and deciphering of the action of this gene will help to explain the genetic mechanisms of insomnia, aging and chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, which will help in the development of new effective drugs for the treatment of these diseases.
“Our bodies are a collection of clocks,” says Satchidananda Panda, who led the project. “We basically knew what mechanism instructed our bodies to shut down at night, but we didn’t know what made us wake up in the morning. Now that we’ve discovered that reason, we can study how our biological clocks wear out as we age and develop chronic diseases.”
In a study published in the journal Science, scientists describe how the JARID1a protein, encoded by the KDM5A gene, serves as an on/off switch for our body's circadian rhythms.
The discovery of this gene completes the missing link in the molecular mechanism that controls the daily sleep-wake cycle. Scientists knew that the central role in the biological clock is played by the protein PERIOD (PER), the amount of which in each cell increases and decreases every 24 hours. The main reasons for the increase in the level of the PER protein are the genes CLOCK and BMAL1. Reaching a maximum level at the end of the day, the PER protein inhibits the activity of the genes CLOCK and BMAL1, thus reducing its own level.
A decrease in the PER protein level leads to a decrease in blood pressure, a reduction in heart rate, and a slowing of mental processes. But, until now, the exact reason why the CLOCK and BMAL1 proteins overcome the body's nighttime slowdown every morning remained unknown.
Scientists have established that the protein JARID1a they discovered reactivates the proteins CLOCK and BMAL1 every morning. This was confirmed by an experiment in which the researchers used genetically modified mice lacking the gene that encodes JARID1a. As a result, the level of the PER protein did not rise to the initial level. The animals lost track of time, not knowing when to sleep and when to wake up. Circadian rhythms began to work when the animals were given drugs that imitated the action of JARID1a.
“Now that we know what activates our circadian rhythm, we have a new direction in the study of circadian rhythm disorders, the development of new drugs against insomnia, diabetes and metabolic syndromes,” concludes Panda.
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