*A Molecular Link between the Circadian Clock, DNA Damage Responses, and Oncogene… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81063*

when active, the CLOCK (NPAS2):BMAL complex stimulates the transcription of many other clock-controlled genes. These genes in turn influence functions external to the oscillatory mechanism itself and mediate the "output" function of the clock. This accounts in part for the presence of circadian rhythms in a variety of physiological processes.

The phenotypes of mice with targeted disruptions of the genes encoding cellular clock's components have revealed direct links between the circadian clock and noncircadian aspects of animal physiology [6, 9]. In particular, these findings argue in favor of a major role played by the circadian machinery in cellular genotoxic stress responses and reveal intriguing links between the DNA damage responses (DDR) pathways and the circadian clocks. In this review, we summarize the evidence and explore the implications of such a link.
