Related papers: The self-tuned sensitivity of circadian clocks
The circadian clocks keeping time of day in many living organisms rely on self-sustained biochemical oscillations which can be entrained by external cues, such as light, to the 24-hour cycle induced by Earth rotation. However, environmental…
Many organisms possess both a cell cycle to control DNA replication and a circadian clock to anticipate changes between day and night. In some cases, these two rhythmic systems are known to be coupled by specific, cross-regulatory…
The circadian clock is the molecular mechanism responsible for the adaptation to daily rhythms in living organisms. Oscillations and fluctuations in environmental conditions regulate the circadian clock through signaling pathways. We study…
Temporal resolution of visual information processing is thought to be an important factor in predator-prey interactions, shaped in the course of evolution by animals' ecology. Here I show that light can be considered to have a dual role of…
Circadian clocks are the central timekeepers of life, allowing cells to anticipate changes between day and night. Experiments in recent years have revealed that circadian clocks can be highly stable, raising the question how reliably they…
Circadian rhythms are acquired through evolution to increase the chances for survival through synchronizing with the daylight cycle. Reliable synchronization is realized through two trade-off properties: regularity to keep time precisely,…
The circadian clock can adapt itself to external cues, but the molecular mechanisms and regulatory networks governing circadian oscillations' transient adjustments are still largely unknown. Here we consider the specific case of circadian…
We study the impact of light on the mammalian circadian system using the theory of phase response curves. Using a recently developed ansatz we derive a low-dimensional macroscopic model for the core circadian clock in mammals.…
Circadian oscillation provides selection advantages through synchronization to the daylight cycle. However, a reliable clock must be designed through two conflicting properties: entrainability to synchronize internal time with periodic…
The development of systemic approaches in biology has put emphasis on identifying genetic modules whose behavior can be modeled accurately so as to gain insight into their structure and function. However most gene circuits in a cell are…
Cell signaling, gene expression, and metabolism are affected by cell-cell heterogeneity and random changes in the environment. The effects of such fluctuations on cell signaling and gene expression have recently been studied intensively…
Nearly all living organisms, including some bacterial species, exhibit biological processes with a period of about 24 h called circadian (from the Latin circa, about, dies, day) rhythms. These rhythms allow living organisms to anticipate…
Circadian clocks are oscillatory genetic networks that help organisms adapt to the 24-hour day/night cycle. The clock of the green alga Ostreococcus tauri is the simplest plant clock discovered so far. Its many advantages as an experimental…
The green microscopic alga Ostreococcus tauri has recently emerged as a promising model for understanding how circadian clocks, which drive the daily biological rythms of many organisms, synchronize to the day/night cycle in changing…
Circadian clocks exhibit the robustness of period and plasticity of phase against environmental changes such as temperature and nutrient conditions. Thus far, however, it is unclear how both are simultaneously achieved. By investigating…
To estimate the time, many organisms, ranging from cyanobacteria to animals, employ a circadian clock which is based on a limit-cycle oscillator that can tick autonomously with a nearly 24h period. Yet, a limit-cycle oscillator is not…
Autonomous circadian clocks drive daily rhythms in physiology and behaviour. A network of coupled neurons, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), serves as a robust self-sustained circadian pacemaker. Synchronization of this timer to the…
Circadian clocks are biochemical oscillators that allow organisms to estimate the time of the day. These oscillators are inherently noisy due to the discrete nature of the reactants and the stochastic character of their interactions. To…
The circadian clock is an internal timer that coordinates the daily rhythms of behavior and physiology, including sleep and hormone secretion. Accurately tracking the state of the circadian clock, or circadian phase, holds immense potential…
We propose a revisited version of the in vivo model of the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Our aim is to address the lack of robustness predicted for the mutant cyanobacteria without transcriptional regulation of the original model. For…