Molecular Clocks and Light Signalling

Beschreibung

The ability at the molecular level to keep track of time is aproperty shared by organisms ranging from the simplest unicells tohumans. The primary feature of these biological clocks is theirability to entrain to environmental stimuli. The dominant stimuluscomes from environmental light cues, which requires the existenceof photopigments sensitive to light. The exact identity of themolecules involved in circadian photoreception has remainedelusive. The classical view of the circadian system is of diversephysiological rhythms regulated by a centralized clock structure.This book presents evidence that challenges this view. Experimentsin both vertebrate and invertebrate systems demonstrate that thecircadian timing system is dispersed throughout the animal andsuggest that possibly every cell contains an autonomous clockmechanism. A variety of tissues and cells contain have been shownto maintain an oscillation when placed in vitro and removed fromany external cues or signals that originate from the classicalclock structures and/or the environment. This book draws together contributions from an international andinterdisciplinary group of experts whose work is focused on allaspects of the topic. Coverage includes the mechanisms of lightsignalling to the vertebrate clock, the connections between centraland peripheral clocks, circadian gene expression patterns andoutput pathways of clock mechanisms.

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Derek J. Chadwick

Themen in »Molecular Clocks and Light Signalling«

Anatomie u. Physiologie Anatomy & Physiology Biochemie Biowissenschaften Cell & Molecular Biology Life Sciences Molekularbiologie Zell- u. Molekularbiologie

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