High impact information on aanat2

• Embryos that were exposed to light at 0-6, 10-13, or 10-16 h after fertilization exhibited clock-controlled rhythms of arylalkylamine-N-acetyltransferase (zfaanat2) mRNA in the pineal gland during the third and fourth day of development [1].
• Among these is the arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase, a key enzyme in the melatonin production pathway [2].
• In constant darkness, the rhythmic expression of retinal aanat2 persisted while the aanat1 rhythm disappeared; indicating that the former is controlled by a circadian clock and the latter is also light driven [3].
• In the pineal gland, the aanat2 promoter exhibited circadian clock-controlled activity, as indicated by circadian rhythms of Enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) mRNA in AANAT2:EGFP transgenic fish [3].
• In vivo transient expression analyses of the aanat2 promoter indicated that E-box and photoreceptor conserved elements (PCE) are required for expression in the pineal gland [3].

Anatomical context of aanat2

• In the light-entrainable clock-containing PAC-2 zebrafish cell line, both stably transfected aanat1 and aanat2 promoters exhibited a clock-controlled circadian rhythm, characteristic for an E-box-driven expression [3].
• In NIH-3T3 cells, the seabream aanat2 promoter was activated by a synergistic action of BMAL/CLOCK and orthodenticle homeobox 5 (OTX5) [4].

References