Post-transcriptional circadian regulation in macrophages organizes temporally distinct immunometabolic states

EJ Collins, MP Cervantes-Silva, GA Timmons… - Genome …, 2021 - genome.cshlp.org
EJ Collins, MP Cervantes-Silva, GA Timmons, JR O'Siorain, AM Curtis, JM Hurley
Genome research, 2021genome.cshlp.org
Our core timekeeping mechanism, the circadian clock, plays a vital role in immunity.
Although the mechanics of circadian control over the immune response is generally
explained by transcriptional activation or repression derived from this clock's transcription-
translation negative-feedback loop, research suggests that some regulation occurs beyond
transcriptional activity. We comprehensively profiled the transcriptome and proteome of
murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and found that only 15% of the circadian …
Our core timekeeping mechanism, the circadian clock, plays a vital role in immunity. Although the mechanics of circadian control over the immune response is generally explained by transcriptional activation or repression derived from this clock's transcription-translation negative-feedback loop, research suggests that some regulation occurs beyond transcriptional activity. We comprehensively profiled the transcriptome and proteome of murine bone marrow-derived macrophages and found that only 15% of the circadian proteome had corresponding oscillating mRNA, suggesting post-transcriptional regulation influences macrophage clock regulatory output to a greater extent than any other tissue previously profiled. This regulation may be explained by the robust temporal enrichment we identified for proteins involved in degradation and translation. Extensive post-transcriptional temporal-gating of metabolic pathways was also observed and further corresponded with daily variations in ATP production, mitochondrial morphology, and phagocytosis. The disruption of this circadian post-transcriptional metabolic regulation impaired immune functionality. Our results demonstrate that cell-intrinsic post-transcriptional regulation is a primary driver of circadian output in macrophages and that this regulation, particularly of metabolic pathways, plays an important role in determining their response to immune stimuli.
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