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Resilient circadian oscillator revealed in individual cyanobacteria

Author

Listed:
  • Irina Mihalcescu

    (Université Joseph Fourier – Grenoble I)

  • Weihong Hsing

    (Princeton University
    Johnson & Johnson PRD)

  • Stanislas Leibler

    (The Rockefeller University)

Abstract

Circadian oscillators, which provide internal daily periodicity, are found in a variety of living organisms, including mammals, insects, plants, fungi and cyanobacteria1. Remarkably, these biochemical oscillators are resilient to external and internal modifications, such as temperature and cell division cycles. They have to be ‘fluctuation (noise) resistant’2 because relative fluctuations in the number of messenger RNA and protein molecules forming the intracellular oscillators are likely to be large. In multicellular organisms, the strong temporal stability of circadian clocks, despite molecular fluctuations, can easily be explained by intercellular interactions3,4,5. Here we study circadian rhythms and their stability in unicellular cyanobacteria Synechoccocus elongatus. Low-light-level microscopy has allowed us to measure gene expression under circadian control in single bacteria, showing that the circadian clock is indeed a property of individual cells. Our measurements show that the oscillators have a strong temporal stability with a correlation time of several months. In contrast to many circadian clocks in multicellular organisms, this stability seems to be ensured by the intracellular biochemical network, because the interactions between oscillators seem to be negligible.

Suggested Citation

  • Irina Mihalcescu & Weihong Hsing & Stanislas Leibler, 2004. "Resilient circadian oscillator revealed in individual cyanobacteria," Nature, Nature, vol. 430(6995), pages 81-85, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:430:y:2004:i:6995:d:10.1038_nature02533
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02533
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    Cited by:

    1. Hellweger, Ferdi L., 2008. "The role of inter-generation memory in diel phytoplankton division patterns," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 382-396.
    2. Marc Hafner & Heinz Koeppl & Martin Hasler & Andreas Wagner, 2009. "‘Glocal’ Robustness Analysis and Model Discrimination for Circadian Oscillators," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-10, October.
    3. Hellweger, Ferdi L., 2010. "Resonating circadian clocks enhance fitness in cyanobacteria in silico," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(12), pages 1620-1629.

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