# Project 7: The Role of DOMINO in Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA RENO · 2020 · $319

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 
The Role of DOMINO in Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in Drosophila 
Circadian clocks coordinate daily rhythms in physiology, metabolism, and behavior to enable organism on 
Earth to anticipate daily environmental changes. Disruptions of circadian clocks have been linked to many 
diseases, including obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and even 
cancers. Studying the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms has profound significance in basic biology 
and for human health. Robust cycling in clock controlled gene expression is critical for circadian timekeeping. 
The long-term goal is to understand how circadian gene expressions are regulated. The core of the circadian 
pacemaker is highly conserved from Drosophila to human, and these mechanisms were in great part 
discovered in flies. Previous studies in the lab indicate that domino (dom), which encodes for the SWR1-type 
nucleosome chromatin remodeling factor, is a novel clock gene in Drosophila. Mutants of dom abolish normal 
locomotor activity rhythms. DOM protein plays a critical role in transcriptional regulation by replacing the 
histone H2A with the H2A.V variant. An exchange of the H2A variant with H2A affects nucleosome mobility 
and positioning, thus regulating transcription. Furthermore, DOM interacts with a critical circadian clock protein- 
CLOCK (CLK) in Drosophila S2 cells. These findings lead to our hypothesis that DOM acts in the circadian 
clock through binding to CLK and activating the transcription of clock-controlled genes. This proposal seeks to: 
1) define the role of DOM in the control of Drosophila circadian rhythms. 2) elucidate the mechanism of DOM in 
the control of circadian rhythms. This proposal will combine a set of genetics, epigenetics, molecular biology 
and genome wide approaches as well as behavior assays to dissect the role of DOM and its function 
mechanism in flies circadian clock. The mechanisms of circadian timekeeping are highly conserved from fly to 
human. These studies will hopefully reveal a novel mechanism of the circadian clock by chromatin remodeling 
and will advance understanding of circadian clocks. These findings will likely have significant implications for 
understanding human circadian clock, as well as disorders related to defects of chromatin remodeling and 
disruption of circadian clock.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9984411
- **Project number:** 5P20GM103650-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA RENO
- **Principal Investigator:** Yong Zhang
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $319
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9984411

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9984411, Project 7: The Role of DOMINO in Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in Drosophila (5P20GM103650-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9984411. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*