Metabolic rhythms include rapid, ultradian (hourly) dynamics, but it remains unclear what their relationship to circadian metabolic rhythms is, and what role meal timing plays in coordinating these ultradian rhythms in metabolism. Here, we characterized widespread ultradian rhythms under ad libitum feeding conditions in the plasma metabolome of the vole, the gold standard animal model for behavioral ultradian rhythms, naturally expressing ~2‐h foraging rhythms throughout the day and night. These ultradian metabolite rhythms co‐expressed with diurnal 24‐h rhythms in the same metabolites and did not align with food intake patterns. Specifically, under light–dark entrained conditions we showed twice daily entrainment of phase and period of ultradian behavioral rhythms associated with phase adjustment of the ultradian cycle around the light–dark and dark–light transitions. These ultradian activity patterns also drove an ultradian feeding pattern. We used a unique approach to map this behavioral activity/feeding status to high temporal resolution (every 90 min) measures of plasma metabolite profiles across the 24‐h light–dark cycle. A total of 148 known metabolites were detected in vole plasma. Supervised, discriminant analysis did not group metabolite concentration by feeding status, instead, unsupervised clustering of metabolite time courses revealed clusters of metabolites that exhibited significant ultradian rhythms with periods different from the feeding cycle. Two clusters with dissimilar ultradian dynamics, one lipid‐enriched (period = 3.4 h) and one amino acid‐enriched (period = 4.1 h), both showed co‐expression with diurnal cycles. A third cluster solely comprised of glycerophospholipids (specifically ether‐linked phosphatidylcholines) expressed an 11.9 h ultradian rhythm without co‐expressed diurnal rhythmicity. Our findings show coordinated co‐expression of diurnal metabolic rhythms with rapid dynamics in feeding and metabolism. These findings reveal that ultradian rhythms are integral to biological timing of metabolic regulation, and will be important in interpreting the impact of circadian desynchrony and meal timing on metabolic rhythms.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.