gene db

Name	clk-1
Organism	Caenorhabditis elegans
Aging Phenotype	Life-span extension
Allele Type	Recessive
Strain	Bristol N2
Description	Loss of function mutation increases adult life-span by 30%. Mutation of both clk-1 and daf-2 results in a nearly 5-fold (500%) increase in life-span (Lakowski and Hekimi, 1996). Overexpression of clk-1 increases mitochondrial activity and shortens life-span (Felkai et al., 1999).
Gene Function	Required for ubiquinone biosynthesis. Has strong similarity to the human ubiquinone biosynthesis protein COQ7 / clk-1.
Other Phenotypes	Mutations in clk-1 are highly pleiotropic resulting in an average lengthening of embryonic development, post-embryonic development, and adult rhythmic behaviors such as defecation, swimming, and pharyngeal pumping (Wong et al., 1995). Clk-1 protein binds the mitochonrdial O(L) region and may regulate replication of mitochondrial DNA (Gorbunova and Seluanov, 2002). clk-1 mutants require a dietary source of coenzyme Q (Jonassen et al., 2001).
Homologs	S.c. CAT5 S.p. Spbc337.15c D.m. COQ7 R.n. COQ7 M.m. COQ7 H.s. COQ7
Primary Reference	Lakowski, B., and Hekimi, S. (1996). Determination of life-span in Caenorhabditis elegans by four clock genes. Science 272, 1010-3. [Abstract]
Other References	Felkai, S., Ewbank, J. J., Lemieux, J., Labbe, J. C., Brown, G. G., and Hekimi, S. (1999). CLK-1 controls respiration, behavior and aging in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. EMBO Journal 18, 1783-1792. [Abstract] Jonassen, T., Proft, M., Randez-Gil, F., Schultz, J. R., Marbois, B. N., Entian, K. D., and Clarke, C. F. (1998). Yeast Clk-1 homologue (Coq7/Cat5) is a mitochondrial protein in coenzyme Q synthesis. J Biol Chem 273, 3351-7. [Abstract] Jonassen, T., Larsen, P. L., and Clarke, C. F. (2001). A dietary source of coenzyme Q is essential for growth of long-lived Caenorhabditis elegans clk-1 mutants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98, 421-6. [Abstract] Wong, A., Boutis, P., and Hekimi, S. (1995). Mutations in the clk-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans affect developmental and behavioral timing. Genetics 139, 1247-59. [Abstract] Gorbunova, V., and Seluanov, A. (2002). CLK-1 protein has DNA binding activity specific to O(L) region of mitochondrial DNA. FEBS Lett 516, 279-84. [Abstract]
Relevant Links	WormBase: http://www.wormbase.org/perl/ace/elegans/gene/locus?name=clk-1 LocusLink: http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/LocusLink/LocRpt.cgi?l=175729
Keywords	metabolism, signaling, mitochondria, Caenorhabditis, elegans, worm, coenzyme Q, development, rhytmic behaviors