"What watch?...such much!" Complexity and evolution of circadian clocks.
This review uses three examples to summarise our knowledge about the complexity and the evolution of circadian systems. The first example describes the ecology of unicellular algae, which use their circadian system to optimise the daily exploitation of resources that are spatially separated. The second example looks at the role of clocks in tissues and cells within a complex organism, and the third speculates on how the circadian system may have evolved.
Institute for Medical Psychology, Chronobiology Division, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany. till.roenneberg@imp.med.uni-muenchen.de
Till
T
Roenneberg
Martha
M
Merrow
D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000502:physiology*