Are changes in MAPK/ERK necessary or sufficient for entrainment in chick pineal cells?

Chick pineal cells in culture display a circadian rhythm of melatonin release. Light pulses can entrain (phase shift) the rhythm. One candidate for the photoentrainment pathway uses a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), also known as extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). We tested the hypothesis that activation of ERK (by phosphorylation to p-ERK) is necessary and/or sufficient for entrainment by measuring the ability of several drugs, light, and other perturbations to change levels of p-ERK and to induce phase shifts in the melatonin rhythm. If changes in the levels of p-ERK are sufficient for photoentrainment, then all perturbations that reduce its level must induce light-like phase shifts, and all those that increase its level must induce dark-like phase shifts. If such changes are necessary for photoentrainment, then light pulses must reduce p-ERK levels, and the duration of the light pulse, the magnitude and duration of the change in p-ERK, and the size of the phase shift must correlate. We found five perturbations that reduced p-ERK levels. Of these, two induced light-like phase shifts (PD 98059 and caffeine), one induced dark-like phase shifts (SB203580), and two did not induce phase shifts at all (U0126 and omitting a medium change). Serum increased p-ERK levels without inducing any phase shifts. Finally, light pulses did not elicit changes in p-ERK, nor was there a diurnal rhythm in p-ERK levels, nor could rapid changes in p-ERK levels have accounted for duration effects of light pulses on phase shifts. Taken together, these results argue strongly against the hypothesis that reduction (or increases) in MAPK/ERK activation is necessary or sufficient for entrainment in chick pineal cells.