Evidence for conservation of a primordial 12-hour ultradian gene program in humans

Abstract

While circadian rhythms are entrained to the once daily light-dark cycle of the sun, many marine organisms exhibit [~]12h ultradian rhythms corresponding to the twice daily movement of the tides. Although human ancestors emerged from circatidal environment millions of years ago, direct evidence of [~]12h ultradian rhythms in humans is lacking. Here, we performed prospective, temporal transcriptome profiling of peripheral white blood cells and identified robust [~]12h transcriptional rhythms from three healthy participants. Pathway analysis implicated [~]12h rhythms in RNA and protein metabolism, with strong homology to the circatidal gene programs previously identified in Cnidarian marine species. We further observed [~]12h rhythms of intron retention events of genes involved in MHC class I antigen presentation, synchronized to expression of mRNA splicing genes in all three participants. Gene regulatory network inference revealed XBP1, and GABP and KLF transcription factor family members as potential transcriptional regulators of human [~]12h rhythms. These results suggest that human [~]12h biological rhythms have a primordial evolutionary origin with important implications for human health and disease.