An essential mineral in our diets has an unexpected role in helping living things remain adapted to the rhythms of night and day. Mg – a nutrient found in many foods – helps control how cells keep their own form of time to cope with the natural environmental cycle of day and night. The discovery in cells is expected to be linked to whole body clocks which influence circadian rhythms – of sleeping and waking, hormone release, body temperature and other important bodily functions in people.
The surprising discovery may aid the development of chronotherapy – Rx scheduled according to time of day – in people, and development of new crop varieties with increased yields or adjustable harvesting seasons. Experiments in 3 major types of biological organisms – human cells, algae, and fungi – found in each case that levels of magnesium in cells rise and fall in a daily cycle.
Scientists found this oscillation was critical to sustain the 24h clock in cells. They were surprised to discover that it also had an enormous impact on metabolism in cells throughout the day. Researchers used molecular analysis to find that concentrations of magnesium rose and fell in a 24-hour cycle in all cell types, and that this impacts on the cells’ internal clocks.
Further tests showed that magnesium levels were linked to the cells’ ability to burn energy. It was already known that magnesium is essential to help living things convert food into fuel, but scientists were surprised to discover that it also controls when this biological function takes place, and how efficiently. The new discovery could lead to a whole range of benefits spanning human health to agricultural productivity. http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2016/nutrient-plays-key-role-in-internal-clocks
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