title: Circadian pacemakers: how clock properties relate to their cellular properties.
abstract: Circadian (~24 hour) pacemaking mechanisms exist within single cells. Which cellular properties contrive to produce a precise clockworks, and which cell properties are downstream of it? The literature is conflicted as to whether membrane excitability contributes to the mechanism. Now, a new conditional genetic strategy argues excitability is largely dispensable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University Medical School, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA. taghertp@pcg.wustl.edu
authors.forename: Paul H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Taghert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000502:physiology*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000502:physiology*; D056950:Period Circadian Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D024661:Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C489461:Kir2.1 channel; D009479:Neuropeptides; C539040:PER protein, Drosophila; D056950:Period Circadian Proteins; D024661:Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying; C113883:pdf protein, Drosophila