Collecting mouse livers for transcriptome analysis of daily rhythms

Abstract

Molecular daily rhythms can be captured by precisely timed tissue harvests from groups of animals. This protocol will allow the investigator to identify transcriptional rhythms in the mouse liver while also providing a template for similar analyses in other whole metabolic organs. We describe steps for mouse entrainment, liver dissection, and rhythmicity analysis from total RNA sequencing data. The resulting rhythmic transcriptome will provide the user with a starting point for defining specific biological processes that undergo daily rhythms. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Koronowski et al. (2019). A similar protocol for interfollicular epidermal cells is demonstrated in Welz et al. (2019).

The IRB Barcelona is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (MINECO award SEV-2015-0505). K.B.K. was supported by NIH-NIDDK (award F32DK121425). T.M. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754510.