The Gatfield lab and collaborators published a Methods paper in which they share their experience and protocol to measure gene expression in real time in mice using luciferase reporters. Their paper has been published in Methods in Molecular Biology and is entitled "Recording of Diurnal Gene Expression in Peripheral Organs of Mice Using the RT-Biolumicorder ".
Abstract
There is high interest in investigating the daily dynamics of gene expression in mammalian organs, for example, in liver. Such studies help to elucidate how and with what kinetics peripheral clocks integrate circadian signals from the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which harbors the circadian master pacemaker, with other systemic and environmental cues, such as those associated with feeding and hormones. Organ sampling around the clock, followed by the analysis of RNA and/or proteins, is the most commonly used procedure in assessing rhythmic gene expression. However, this method requires large cohorts of animals and is only applicable to behaviorally rhythmic animals whose phases are known. Real-time recording of gene expression rhythms using luciferase reporters has emerged as a powerful method to acquire continuous, high-resolution datasets from freely moving individual mice. Here, we share our experience and protocols with this technique, using the RT-Biolumicorder setup.
Read the Publication in Methods in Molecular Biology
Abstract retrieved from the Pubmed entry of the paper.