Human CLOCK enhances neocortical function

Abstract

The transcription factor CLOCK is ubiquitously expressed and important for circadian rhythms, while its human-specific expression in neocortex suggests additional functions. Here, we generated a mouse model (HU) that recapitulates human cortical expression of CLOCK. The HU mice show enhanced cognitive flexibility, which might be associated with alteration in spatiotemporal expression of CLOCK. Cell-type-specific genomic profiling identified upregulated genes related to dendritic growth and spine formation in excitatory neurons of HU mice. We also found that excitatory neurons in HU mice have increased dendritic complexity and spine density, and a greater frequency of excitatory postsynaptic currents, suggesting a greater abundance of neural connectivity. In contrast, CLOCK knockout in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons showed reduced complexity of dendrites and lower density of presynaptic puncta. Together, our data demonstrate that CLOCK might have evolved brain-relevant gains of function via altered spatiotemporal gene expression and that these functions may underlie human brain specializations.