Clockwork Genes: Discoveries in Biological Time

Lecture 2 – Unwinding Clock Genetics

by Michael Rosbash, PhD
  1.  1.  Start of Lecture 2
  2.  2.  Introduction by HHMI Vice President Dr. Peter Bruns
  3.  3.  Introductory interview with Dr. Michael Rosbash
  4.  4.  How much of what we are is inherited? Genetics as a tool to search for disease mechanisms
  5.  5.  Pioneering the use of the fruit fly Drosophila as a genetic tool
  6.  6.  Examples of mutants in Drosophila
  7.  7.  General insect behavior: Waggle dance of the honeybee
  8.  8.  Similarity of cellular structures and genome between humans and Drosophila
  9.  9.  Behavior in fruit flies: Courtship song
  10. 10.  Behavior in fruit flies: Learning and memory
  11. 11.  Behavior in fruit flies: Circadian rhythm assayed by time of eclosion
  12. 12.  period gene (per) located on the X chromosome
  13. 13.  Animation: Activity pattern of circadian mutant
  14. 14.  Apparatus for measuring fly activity
  15. 15.  Activity patterns of per-short flies
  16. 16.  Do flies actually sleep?
  17. 17.  Q&A: Are there fundamental differences between diurnal and nocturnal animals?
  18. 18.  Q&A: Are there many natural variations in the fruit fly?
  19. 19.  Q&A: Have you tried to change the clock gene?
  20. 20.  Q&A: What are the characteristics of humans with a biological clock mutation?
  21. 21.  Q&A: Are clock mutations inherited?
  22. 22.  Q&A: Does temperature affect circadian rhythm in flies?
  23. 23.  Q&A: Is the clock mutation dominant, semi-dominant, or something else?
  24. 24.  Q&A: Is the human period gene located in the X chromosome?
  25. 25.  Beginning of the molecular era: Cloning of the period gene
  26. 26.  Finding the exact location of mutation in per mutants by using transgenic flies
  27. 27.  per gene organization
  28. 28.  Antibody against per protein (PER) reveals where per gene is expressed
  29. 29.  Negative feedback loop as a mechanism for oscillating per RNA levels
  30. 30.  Animation: Negative feedback loop of the per gene
  31. 31.  Measurements of oscillations by using a per-luciferase transgenic fly
  32. 32.  Summary of Lecture Two
  33. 33.  Q&A: How does PER control the fly's behavior?
  34. 34.  Q&A: What affects biological clocks more: genes or environment?
  35. 35.  Q&A: Is circadian rhythm affected by shortening of telomeres?
  36. 36.  Q&A: What do fruit flies and humans have in common?
  37. 37.  Q&A: What kind of protein is PER and what does it do?
  38. 38.  Q&A: How does X inactivation affect the per gene on the fly's X chromosome?
  39. 39.  Q&A: Does aging affect the circadian clock?
  40. 40.  Closing remarks by HHMI Vice President Dr. Peter Bruns


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