Credit: Professor Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark
Humans have them, so do other animals and plants. Now research reveals that bacteria too have internal clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.
The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.
Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.
Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight and temperature to synchronise biological clocks to their environment. It is why we experience the jarring effects of jet lag as our internal clocks are temporarily mismatched before aligning to the new cycle of light and dark at our travel destination.
Bacterial bioclock
Researchers have used the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to shine a light on internal clocks. Credit: Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark
The ebb and flow of our daily lives revolves largely around our sleep cycle, which is governed by our body’s biological clock. Other animals and plants also have these internal timing mechanisms to cope with light changes across days and even seasons – and now researchers have discovered that bacteria do, too.
“We’ve found for the first time that non-photosynthetic bacteria can tell the time,” says lead author Martha Merrow, a chronobiologist from Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU), in Munich, Germany.
Date Time
Bacteria can tell time
Humans have them, so do other animals and plants – now research reveals that bacteria too have internal daily clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.
The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.
Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.
Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight and temperature to synchronise biological clocks to their environment. It is why we experience the jarring effects of jet lag as our internal clocks are temporarily mismatched before aligning to the new cycle of light and dark at our travel destination.
Dive Brief:
Biogen will work with Germany s ViGeneron to develop gene therapies for inherited eye diseases, part of the big biotech s plan to diversify its drug pipeline by increasing research in ophthalmology.
Per deal terms, ViGeneron is responsible for early test-tube studies on therapeutic candidates and will work together with Biogen on animal tests. Biogen would then take over for further development in human clinical trials and, should tests succeed, commercialization.
The Munich-based company will receive an undisclosed upfront payment as well as funds for research and development. ViGeneron is also in line to receive development milestone payments and royalties on any eventual sales.
Traces of Exotic Foods Detected on Bronze Age Teeth
MUNICH, GERMANY
Courthouse News Service reports that an analysis of the proteins obtained from the dental calculus on 16 Bronze Age skeletons in northern Israel suggests that spices, fruits, and oils might have been imported from South and East Asia centuries earlier than had been previously thought. Traces of turmeric and soy were detected in the ancient dental plaque on a resident of the Canaanite city of Megiddo, while at Tel Erani, a Nagada Egyptian trading post, traces of banana were found on the teeth of another individual. Philipp Stockhammer of Ludwig-Maximilians University said it is possible that these two individuals may have lived in South Asia at some time in their lives and ate the local diet before they traveled to the Levant. On the other hand, Stockhammer and his colleagues think the goods may have passed through trade centers in Egypt and Mesopotamia for wider distribution across the eastern Mediterranean