DNA damage resets body clock

DNA damage resets the circadian clock in mammals, researchers report in this week's online issue of linkurl:__Current Biology.__;http://www.current-biology.com/content/future Previous studies have shown that DNA damage affects circadian cycles in the fungus __Neospora__. Here, Malgorzata Oklejewicz at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands and colleagues demonstrated the effect not only in mammalian cell lines, but also in mice in vivo. "This interaction between DNA damage response and the circadian clock is preserved through evolution," said Roman Kondratov, a cancer biologist at the Cleveland State University, who was not involved in the study. The researchers treated mammalian cells with a number of DNA-damaging agents: ionizing radiation, ultraviolet light and a chemical compound that causes oxidation, and looked at the subsequent expression of __mPER2__, a key linkurl:circadian clock gene.;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53160/ They saw that the amount that the clock shifted forward, as indicated by a shift in gene expression, depended on the dose of...