RUI: Mechanisms Underlying Limulus behavior: from Molecules to Movements

体内生物钟在几乎每个活着的有机体中都扮演着重要的调节角色。动物的生物钟调节日常活动节律，由涉及蛋白质PER的分子控制系统组成。最近的初步证据表明，PER也可能是控制多发性马蹄蟹圆环(~12.4小时周期)节律的时钟(S)的重要组成部分。该项目的第一个目标是使用分子技术来研究河蟹昼夜节律和昼夜节律背后的分子机制，并将驱动这些节律的时钟定位到特定的大脑区域。第二个目标将是确定昼夜节律是否由两个24小时的“生物钟”控制，每个钟驱动一次高潮活动；这是一个悬而未决的问题，几十年来一直没有答案。第三，在水生无脊椎动物中，将首次使用一种新开发的监测技术来记录在自然栖息地自由活动的马蹄蟹所表达的生物节律模式。总体结果将首次在任何物种中定位控制昼夜节律行为的生物钟，并将识别出一直以来一直在寻找的蛙类昼夜节律时钟。最终，获得的数据将允许充分了解这种具有商业和生态重要性的物种从分子到生态水平上表达运动节奏模式的潜在机制。该项目将显著加强该州许多K-12教育工作者所在机构的本科生的科学培训。超过一半的学生研究人员可能是女性，一些人将来自代表性不足的少数族裔。此外，许多学生将是来自较低经济部门的第一代大学生。

Internal biological clocks play important regulatory roles in virtually every living organism. The circadian clock in animals regulates daily activity rhythms and is composed of a molecular control system involving the protein PER. Recent preliminary evidence suggests that PER may also be an important part of the clock(s) controlling circatidal (~12.4 hour cycle) rhythms in the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. The first goal of the project is to use molecular techniques to investigate the molecular mechanisms that underlie both circadian and circatidal rhythms in Limulus and to localize the clocks that drive these rhythms to specific brain regions. A second goal will be to determine if circatidal rhythms are controlled by two 24 hr "circadian clocks" that each drive one of the high tide bouts of activity; an outstanding issue that has remained unanswered for decades. Third, for the first time in an aquatic invertebrate, the pattern of biological rhythms that are actually expressed by freely moving horseshoe crabs in their natural habitat will be recorded using a newly developed monitoring technique. The overall results will, for the first time in any species, localize a clock controlling circatidal behavior and will also identify the long sought after circadian clock in Limulus. Ultimately, the data obtained will allow for a full understanding of the mechanisms underlying the expression of rhythmic patterns of locomotion in this commercially and ecologically important species, from the molecular to the ecological level.This project will significantly enhance the training of undergraduates in the sciences at an institution that educates many of the K-12 educators in the state. Over half of the student researchers are likely to be women and some will be from under-represented minorities. In addition, many of the students will be first generation university students from lower economic sectors.