A correctly set circadian clock, whatever the light intensity
Monday, November 22, 2010 - 11:02
in Biology & Nature
How are circadian clocks able to synchronize themselves accurately to the day/night cycle without taking account of extreme light intensity fluctuations over the course of a single day or from one day to the next? The mathematical analysis of the activity profiles of two central genes of the circadian clock of a microscopic green alga has recently been carried out by French researchers from the Observatoire Oceanologique de Banyuls at CNRS. This study reveals that the circadian clock is only sensitive to light if it is out of sync and needs to be reset. This work has recently been published in the journal PloS Computational Biology.