Abstract
It has become clear that circadian clocks in peripheral tissues play important functions. Disruption of the circadian clock in skeletal muscle, for example, results in insulin resistance, sarcomere disorganization, and muscle weakness(1). Interestingly, cavefish, which exhibit a disrupted central clock, exhibit similar muscle phenotypes(2)(,)(3)(,)(4), raising the question of whether they are caused by alterations to central or peripheral clocks. Here, we demonstrate a loss in clock function in the skeletal muscle of the Mexican Cavefish Astyanax mexicanus that is associated with reduced rhythmicity of a large number of genes and disrupted nocturnal protein catabolism. Some of the identified genes are associated with metabolic dysfunction in humans.