Veleri, Shobi and Brandes, C. and Helfrich-Foerster, Charlotte and Hall, J. C. and Stanewsky, Ralf (2003) A self-sustaining, light-entrainable circadian oscillator in the Drosophila brain. CURRENT BIOLOGY, 13 (20). pp. 1758-1767. ISSN 0960-9822
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Background: The circadian clock of Drosophila is able to drive behavioral rhythms for many weeks in continuous darkness (DD). The endogenous rhythm generator is thought to be generated by interlocked molecular feedback loops involving circadian transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of several clock genes, including period. However, all attempts to demonstrate sustained rhythms of clock gene expression in DD have failed, making it difficult to link the molecular clock models with the circadian behavioral rhythms. Here we restricted expression of a novel period-luciferase transgene to certain clock neurons in the Drosophila brain, permitting us to monitor reporter gene activity in these cells in real-time. Results: We show that only a subset of the previously described pacemaker neurons is able to sustain PERIOD protein oscillations after 5 days in constant darkness. In addition, we identified a sustained and autonomous molecular oscillator in a group of clock neurons in the dorsal brain with heretofore unknown function. We found that these "dorsal neurons" (DNs) can synchronize behavioral rhythms and that light input into these cells involves the blue-light photoreceptor cryptochrome. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the DNs play a prominent role in controlling locomotor behavior when flies are exposed to natural light-dark cycles. Analysis of similar "stable mosaic" transgenes should help to reveal the function of the other clock neuronal clusters within the fly brain.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | PERIOD GENE-EXPRESSION; PACEMAKER NEURONS; LATERAL NEURONS; NERVOUS-SYSTEM; TIMELESS GENES; VISUAL-SYSTEM; CLOCK; MELANOGASTER; RHYTHMS; ELEMENTS; |
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 590 Zoological sciences |
| Divisions: | Biology, Preclinical Medicine > Institut für Zoologie > Alumni or Retired > Organisation der inneren Uhr auf neuronaler Ebene (Prof. Dr. Charlotte Förster) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Aug 2021 07:26 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Aug 2021 07:26 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/38517 |
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