nm u Ottawa L'Universite canadienne Canada's university run FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES l=J FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Unneisue

Matias Alvarez-Saavedra AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS

M.Sc. (Biochemistry) GRADE/DEGREE

Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology

MicroRNA-132-Dependent Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Clock Entrainment Physiology Via Modulation of Chromatin Remodeling and Translational Control Targets

TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS

Mary Cheng "WRKTEUTPRE^

CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR

David Lohnes Adam Rudner

Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies MicroRNA-132-Dependent Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Clock

Entrainment Physiology Via Modulation of Chromatin Remodeling and

Translational Control Gene Targets

M.Sc. Thesis

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree Master of Science (M.Sc.)

in the Biochemistry Program at the

University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Sliihmil'l-P'rl hv " "J

©Matias Alberto Alvarez-Saavedra, Ottawa, Canada, 2010 1 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition

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1+1 Canada Thesis Supervisor:

Dr. Hai-Ying Mary Cheng, Department of BMI, University of Ottawa

Thesis Examiners:

Dr. David Lohnes, Department of CMM, University of Ottawa

Dr. Adam Rudner, Department of BMI, University of Ottawa

Date of Thesis Submission: August 20th, 2010.

2 ABSTRACT

Mammalian circadian rhythms of behaviour are synchronized to external time by daily

resetting of the master pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), in response to

light, in a process known as light-induced clock entrainment. microRNA-132 (miR-132)

is induced by light within the SCN via a MAPK-CREB-depen