Separate oscillating cell groups in mouse suprachiasmatic nucleus couple photoperiodically to the onset and end of daily activity.

ABSTRACT: The pattern of circadian behavioral rhythms is photoperiod-dependent, highlighted by the conservation of a phase relation between the behavioral rhythm and photoperiod. A model of two separate, but mutually coupled, circadian oscillators has been proposed to explain photoperiodic responses of behavioral rhythm in nocturnal rodents: an evening oscillator, which drives the activity onset and entrains to dusk, and a morning oscillator, which drives the end of activity and entrains to dawn. Continuous measurement of circadian rhythms in clock gene Per1 expression by a bioluminescence reporter enabled us to identify the separate oscillating cell groups in the mouse suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which composed circadian oscillations of different phases and responded to photoperiods differential

SUBMITTER: Inagaki N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1857228 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature