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Circadian Rhythmicity By Autocatalysis, Arun Mehra, Christian I. Hong, Mi Shi, Jennifer J. Loros, Jay C. Dunlap, Peter Ruoff
Circadian Rhythmicity By Autocatalysis, Arun Mehra, Christian I. Hong, Mi Shi, Jennifer J. Loros, Jay C. Dunlap, Peter Ruoff
Dartmouth Scholarship
The temperature compensated in vitro oscillation of cyanobacterial KaiC phosphorylation, the first example of a thermodynamically closed system showing circadian rhythmicity, only involves the three Kai proteins (KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC) and ATP. In this paper, we describe a model in which the KaiA- and KaiB-assisted autocatalytic phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of KaiC are the source for circadian rhythmicity. This model, based upon autocatalysis instead of transcription-translation negative feedback, shows temperature-compensated circadian limit-cycle oscillations with KaiC phosphorylation profiles and has period lengths and rate constant values that are consistent with experimental observations.