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  • 968750217821648437511241024218736196PublicAssets/3754Some nerve cells (neurons) in the brain keep track of the daily cycle. This time-keeping mechanism, called the circadian clock, is found in all animals including us. The circadian clock controls our daily activities such as sleep and wakefulness. Researchers are interested in finding the neuron circuits involved in this time keeping and how the information about daily time in the brain is relayed to the rest of the body. In this image of a brain of the fruit fly <i>Drosophila</i> the time-of-day information flowing through the brain has been visualized by staining the neurons involved: clock neurons (shown in blue) function as "pacemakers" by communicating with neurons that produce a short protein called leucokinin (LK) (red), which, in turn, relays the time signal to other neurons, called LK-R neurons (green). This signaling cascade set in motion by the pacemaker neurons helps synchronize the fly's daily activity with the 24-hour cycle. To learn more about what scientists have found out about circadian pacemaker neurons in the fruit fly <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2016/02/29/biological-clocks-orchestrate-behavioral-rhythms-by-sending-signals-downstream.html">see this news release by New York University</a>. This work was featured in the <i>Biomedical Beat</i> blog post <a href="https://biobeat.nigms.nih.gov/2016/03/cool-image-a-circadian-circuit/">Cool Image: A Circadian Circuit.</a>Justin Blau, New York UniversityMatthieu Cavey and Justin Blau, New York UniversityPhotograph

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    Cells

    Circadian rhythm neurons in the fruit fly brain

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    Some nerve cells (neurons) in the brain keep track of the daily cycle. This time-keeping mechanism, called the circadian clock, is found in all animals including us. The circadian clock controls our daily activities such as sleep and wakefulness. Researchers are interested in finding the neuron circuits involved in this time keeping and how the information about daily time in the brain is relayed to the rest of the body. In this image of a brain of the fruit fly Drosophila the time-of-day information flowing through the brain has been visualized by staining the neurons involved: clock neurons (shown in blue) function as "pacemakers" by communicating with neurons that produce a short protein called leucokinin (LK) (red), which, in turn, relays the time signal to other neurons, called LK-R neurons (green). This signaling cascade set in motion by the pacemaker neurons helps synchronize the fly's daily activity with the 24-hour cycle. To learn more about what scientists have found out about circadian pacemaker neurons in the fruit fly see this news release by New York University. This work was featured in the Biomedical Beat blog post Cool Image: A Circadian Circuit.

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    Justin Blau, New York University

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    Matthieu Cavey and Justin Blau, New York University

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    Photograph

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    3754

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