Forum for Science, Industry and Business
Sponsored by:     Siemens     3M    n-tv
Search our Site:

Topic (optional):

 

Home Reports Life Sciences Content

Protein shown to rally biological clock

next article
01.12.2006

'Pony Express' protein

 

A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and his collaborators have identified the factor in mammalian brain cells that keeps cells in synchrony so that functions like the wake-sleep cycle, hormone secretion and loco motor behaviors are coordinated daily over a 24-hour period.


...more about:
GABA Neuron SCN VIP

Erik Herzog, Ph.D., Washington University associate professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, Sara Aton, Ph.D., a graduate student in Herzog’s lab who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, James Huettner, Ph.D., associate professor in cell biology and physiology at the Washington

University School of Medicine, and Martin Straume, a biostatistician, have determined that VIP ¬– vasoactive intestinal polypeptide – is the rallying protein that signals the brain’s biological clock to coordinate daily rhythms in behavior and physiology.

The finding clarifies the roles that both VIP and a neurotransmitter GABA play in synchronizing biological clocks, and sheds light on how mammals, in this case mice and rats. regulate circadian rhythm. Results were published in the Nov. 27- Dec. 1 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neurons in the biological clock, an area called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), located at the base of the brain right across the optic nerve, keep 24-hour time and are normally highly synchronized. The SCN is composed of 10,000 neurons on one side of the hypothalamus, and 10,000 on the other. Together these neurons are intrinsic clocks in communication with each other to keep 24-hour time.

It had been thought that GABA was the prime candidate for the rallying role. All SCN neurons make this inhibitory neurotransmitter, and it had been shown that giving GABA daily at 8 a.m. to SCN cells synchronizes them.

“The surprise was that GABA was not needed,” said Herzog. “VIP synchronizes even when we block all GABA signaling. When we blocked GABA, synchrony was perfectly fine. Instead, the oscillations got bigger.”

Herzog likens VIP to the Pony Express rider telling all the SCN cells to synchronize their ; GABA, he says, is like the marshal that prevents he cells from being too active.

Herzog and Aton recorded neuron activity from the SCN using a multielectrode array with 60 electrodes upon which they place SCN cells, a “clock in a dish.” They also recorded gene expression in real-time using a bioluminescent reporter of gene activity.

Using drugs or genetic knock out mice, they negated the role of GABA and recorded the electrical activity of many neurons, what Herzog calls the “hands of the clock,” and the gene activities, “the cogs of the clock,” of many SCN cells.

They found that, without GABA, the cells marched together, but without VIP, they lost synchrony, indicating that VIP is the coordinator.

Tony Fitzpatrick | Source: EurekAlert!
Further information: www.wustl.edu

Further Reports about: GABA Neuron SCN VIP

next article

More articles from Life Sciences:

nachricht Tokyo Institute of Technology research: An insight into cell survival
17.05.2013 | Tokyo Institute of Technology

nachricht Asian lady beetles use biological weapons against their European relatives
17.05.2013 | Max-Planck-Institut für chemische Ökologie

All articles from Life Sciences >>>
The most recent press releases about innovation >>>

Overview of the latest five Focus news of the innovations-report:
In the focus: GPS solution provides three-minute tsunami alerts

Researchers have shown that, by using global positioning systems (GPS) to measure ground deformation caused by a large underwater earthquake, they can provide accurate warning of the resulting tsunami in just a few minutes after the earthquake onset.

For the devastating Japan 2011 event, the team reveals that the analysis of the GPS data and issue of a detailed tsunami alert would have taken no more than three minutes. The results are published on 17 May in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of ...

In the focus: NASA Satellite Data Helps Pinpoint Glaciers' Role in Sea Level Rise

A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise.

The new research found glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, repositories of 1 percent of all land ice, lost an average of 571 trillion pounds (259 trillion kilograms) of mass every year during the six-year study period, making the oceans rise 0.03 inches (0.7 mm) per year. ...

In the focus: Sea level: one third of its rise comes from melting mountain glaciers

About 99% of the world’s land ice is stored in the huge ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, while only 1% is contained in glaciers.

However, the meltwater of glaciers contributed almost as much to the rise in sea level in the period 2003 to 2009 as the two ice sheets: about one third. This is one of the results of an international study with the involvement of geographers from the University of Zurich.

How ...

In the focus: Observation of Second Sound in a Quantum Gas

Second sound is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which has been observed only in superfluid helium.

Physicists from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Trento, Italy, have now proven the propagation of such a temperature wave in a quantum gas. The scientists have published their historic findings in the journal Nature.

Below a critical temperature, certain fluids become superfluid ...

In the focus: Using clay to grow bone

Researchers use synthetic silicate to stimulate stem cells into bone cells

In new research published online May 13, 2013 in Advanced Materials, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to report that synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (also known as layered clay) can induce stem cells to become bone cells without the need of additional bone-inducing factors.

Synthetic silicates are made ...

All Focus news of the innovations-report >>>

B2B Search

Product / Service
Company / Organisation

Latest News

New method proposed for detecting gravitational waves from ends of universe

17.05.2013 | Physics and Astronomy

Scientists Shape First Global Topographic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan

17.05.2013 | Physics and Astronomy

Black Hole Powered Jets Plow Into Galaxy

17.05.2013 | Physics and Astronomy

VideoLinks
B2B-VideoLinks
More VideoLinks >>>

Event News

ITS European Congress: Traffic Warning and Information Platform

17.05.2013 | Event News

European Research Infrastructures help to solve air quality issues

15.05.2013 | Event News

The Problem of the European Unemployment

08.05.2013 | Event News