U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Circadian Rhythms of Gene Expression in Cyanobacteria

该奖项支持为期两年的合作研究项目 范德比尔特大学的卡尔约翰逊教授和高尾之间 冈崎国立基础生物学研究所（NIBB）的近藤， 日本 德克萨斯大学的苏珊·戈尔丁教授也参与其中 大学和Masahiro Ishiura的NIBB。 该项目的目标 是阐明昼夜节律的分子机制。 昼夜节律是生物体对有规律的 环境的日常变化。 尽管我们对 昼夜节律的形式属性，使他们能够 与每天的光/暗周期同步，几乎什么都不知道 这些节奏在生物化学水平上是如何运作的。 将采用两种办法。 首先，调查人员将使用 最简单的生物体，现在已知的表达昼夜节律- 原核蓝细菌 其次，他们将利用基因 在这个简单的细胞中可用的工具来分析其机制。 一 主要的努力将是确定感光器， 通过行动光谱学。 这项研究将依赖于使用 冈崎大型摄谱仪和近藤博士的摄像设备 对数百个殖民地进行筛选， 昼夜节律行为

This award supports a two-year collaborative research project between Professor Carl Johnson of Vanderbilt University and Takao Kondo of the National Institute of Basic Biology (NIBB), Okazaki, Japan. Also involved are Professor Susan Goldin of Texas A&M University and Masahiro Ishiura of NIBB. The goal of the project is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are an adaptation of organisms to the regular daily change of their environment. Although much is known about the formal properties of circadian rhythms that allow them to synchronize to the daily light/dark cycles, almost nothing is known about how these rhythms work on the biochemical level. Two approaches will be utilized. First, the investigators will use the simplest organism now known to express circadian rhythms -- prokaryotic cynaobacteria. Second, they will exploit the genetic tools available in this simple cell to analyze its mechanism. A major effort will be to identify the photoreceptor that is involved by action spectroscopy. This study will rely on the use of the Okazaki Large Spectrograph and Dr. Kondo's video camera apparatus to screen hundreds of colonies for specific manifestations of circadian behavior.