Researchers at Texas A&M University discovered that the timing of meals directly triggers a nutrient-signaling pathway (mTOR) that drives rhythmic gene activity in the liver. This means food not only provides nutrients but also acts as a cue to set the liver’s daily rhythms, independently of the body’s core circadian clock. The team found that when feeding schedules became irregular, the liver’s rhythmic mTOR activity became disrupted, affecting the expression of hundreds of genes. This finding highlights that misaligned meal times could potentially perturb metabolic regulation.
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