Plants' daily alarm clock discovered

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 5 days (www.newscientist.com)

A newly discovered family of genes acts as a plant's daily alarm, triggering a growth spurt just before dawn. By tweaking these genes, scientists may one day be able to engineer crops that grow for longer every day to produce bigger yields.

The timing of the growth spurt is known to be choreographed by the plant's circadian clock, which is reset by changes in light at dawn and dusk. The clock dictates when most physiological processes, such as the uptake of water and the breakdown of starch, happen throughout the day

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: genetics agriculture Plants circadian rhythms circadian rhythms

Forty Winks in the Wild

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 4 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Researchers have spent decades trying to understand the confusing array of sleep patterns found in mammals. A donkey typically snoozes for just three hours a day, for instance, and armadillos and bats can be dead to the world for twenty hours a day. To explain the differences, scientists have offered a slew of theories, ranging from the idea that smaller animals need more sleep to conserve energy and maintain body temperature to the need to avoid predators.

2 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: animal behavior ecosystems predators circadian rhythms neuroscience mammals sleep sleep patterns

Removal of "superfluous" retina creates (time) blind mice...

Darkfrog submitted, created time 5 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

Removing a certain type of retinal cell from lab mice doesn't make them go blind, but it does shake up their body clocks; they quickly slip into a 23.5 hour cycle--the same as unaltered mice in total darkness. They also lost their ability to regulate pupil size, but not their other visual abilities, such as judging how far to jump to make it across a gap. This suggests that these melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs) concern the detection of light, not the processing of visual information.

What I'm curious about now is whether blind humans do or do not have this problem

3 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: blindness retina diptheria circadian rhythms body clock sleep cycle sleep vision drug target melanopsin melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion c mRGCs

CLOCK-mediated acetylation of BMAL1 controls circadian function

Sue Wu submitted, created time 11 months 4 days (www.nature.com)

Regulation of circadian physiology relies on the interplay of interconnected transcriptional–translational feedback loops. The CLOCK–BMAL1 complex activates clock-controlled genes, including cryptochromes (Crys), the products of which act as repressors by interacting directly with CLOCK–BMAL1.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: CLOCK BMAL1 life cycles cell cycle Circadian Rhythms

Research finds that circadian rhythms dominate all life functions

bioman submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.eurekalert.org)

New research from Colorado State University shows that the function of all genes in mammals is based on circadian -- or daily -- rhythms. The study, publishing in PLoS Computational Biology on June 15, refutes the current theory that only 10 percent to 15 percent of all genes were affected by nature's clock. While scientists have long known that circadian rhythms regulate the behavior of the living, the study shows that daily rhythm dominates all life functions and particularly metabolism

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: circadian rhythms gene

Drug Insight: the use of melatonergic agonists for the treatment of insomnia—focus on ramelteon

Luneetty submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.nature.com)

Melatonin, a chronobiotic that participates in the control of the circadian system, is known for its sleep-promoting effects, which include shortening of sleep latency and lengthening of sleep duration. There has been an active search for patentable melatonin receptor ligands in recent years.Ramelteon has been shown to induce sleep initiation and maintenance in various animal models and in clinical trials. In chronic insomnia, ramelteon decreases sleep latency and increases total sleep time and sleep efficiency, without causing hangover, addiction or withdrawal effects

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: circadian rhythms , insomnia melatonin ramelteon