FRQ-less oscillators in the circadian system of Neurospora

我们研究驱动细菌、植物、真菌和动物昼夜节律的生物钟。因为这些节律存在于生命的所有领域，存在于从单细胞到整个动物的所有组织水平，它们是生物的基本属性。先前的研究表明，所有生物体的生物钟都有共同的特征：一组基因产生的蛋白质相互作用，在24小时的反馈循环中打开或关闭彼此的表达。虽然这些反馈回路在生物钟机制中显然很重要，但当这些反馈回路不起作用时，节奏仍然可以看到。我们正试图找出当反馈回路不起作用时，还有哪些基因参与了使生物体有节奏的过程。我们使用真菌粗神经孢子菌作为模型生物来研究这些时钟，因为它很容易在实验室中生长和工作，它已经被研究了很多年，它的孢子形成的节奏很容易看到。我们已经发现了一些基因，它们似乎对维持已知反馈循环之外的节奏很重要。我们建议研究这些基因，找出它们产生什么产物，这些产物如何起作用，以及它们如何与众所周知的反馈回路中的蛋白质相互作用。我们希望这项研究能告诉我们更多关于日常时钟是如何构造的，以及生物是如何判断时间的。这些信息对任何研究细胞及其内部过程的人，以及研究整个生物体及其如何与环境中的日常循环相互作用的人都很有用。

We study the biological clocks that drive circadian (daily) rhythms in bacteria, plants, fungi and animals. Because these rhythms are found in all domains of life and at all levels of organization from single cells to whole animals, they are a fundamental property of living things. Previous research has shown that there are common features to the clocks in all organisms: a set of genes produce proteins that interact to turn each other's expression on and off in a 24-hour feedback loop. Although these feedback loops are clearly important in the clock mechanisms, rhythms can still be seen when these feedback loops are not functioning. We are trying to find out what other genes are involved in making an organism rhythmic when the feedback loops are not functioning. We are using the fungus Neurospora crassa as a model organism to study these clocks, because it is easy to grow and work with in the lab, it has been studied for many years, and its rhythm of spore-formation is easy to see. We have discovered genes that seem to be important for maintaining rhythms outside of the known feedback loops. We are proposing to study these genes, find out what products they make and how those products function, and how they might interact with the proteins of the well-known feedback loop. We expect that this research will tell us more about how daily clocks are constructed, and how living things can tell time. The information will be useful to anyone studying cells and how they organize their internal processes, and anyone studying whole organisms and how they interact with the daily cycles in their environment.