title: Biological clocks.
abstract: Circadian rhythms describe biological phenomena that oscillate with an approximately 24-hour cycle. These rhythms include blood pressure, body temperature, hormone levels, the number of immune cells in blood, and the sleep-wake cycle. In this paper, we will focus on common genes between species that are responsible for determining the circadian behavior, especially some transcription factors (i.e., switch genes) that serve to regulate many circadian rhythm genes. The intent of this summary is to introduce the common molecular mechanism of biological clocks between flies and humans and then to describe the research from three laboratories that was presented in the session.
authors.affiliation: Ishida Group of Clock Gene, National Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, 1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki 305 Japan. nishida@nibh.go.jp
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Allada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001831:Body Temperature; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D006728:Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones