Molecular Biology of a Neuronal Circadian Oscillator

本申请中描述的拟议研究是 关注于理解化学机械， 是24小时（昼夜）周期的基础。 昼夜节律周期是 在植物和动物王国中很常见， 包括人类的睡眠和清醒。 的 产生如此长周期的生物化学机制并不 知道的 调查将使用一个模型系统， 海洋软体动物海蜗牛。 这只眼睛拥有所有的机械 表达神经脉冲的昼夜节律的许多周期 频率，在恒定的黑暗和温度条件下， 当与动物的其他部分分离时。 校长 研究人员将使用生物化学和生理学方法， 产生关于这种神经元昼夜节律机制的数据 周期 主要方法是研究 在昼夜节律周期中出现特定的蛋白质。 根据这些蛋白质的氨基酸序列， 研究者将合成寡核苷酸探针， 用来克隆编码这些蛋白质的基因信息。 这些研究将开始给我们什么基因和蛋白质正在被 在昼夜节律周期中表达。

The proposed research described in this application is concerned with understanding the chemical machinery that underlies 24-hour (circadian) cycles. Circadian cycles are common in the plant and animal kingdom and organize a number of important processes including sleep and waking in humans. The biochemical mechanisms that generate such a long cycle are not known. The investigations will use a model system, the eye of a marine mollusc Aplysia. This eye has all the machinery for expressing many cycles of a circadian rhythm of nerve impulse frequency, under constant conditions of darkness and temperature, when isolated from the rest of the animal. The principal investigator will use biochemical and physiological methods to generate data about the mechanisms of this neuronal circadian cycle. The major approach will be to study the timing of appearance of particular proteins during the circadian cycle. From the amino acid sequence of these proteins the principal investigator will synthesize oligonucleotide probes which can be used to clone the gene messages that code for these proteins. These studies will begin to us what genes and proteins are being expressed specifically during the circadian cycle.