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Cryptic clues to clock function

Nature volume 398, pages 557–558 (1999)Cite this article

The discovery that plant photopigment-like molecules are essential for the mouse biological clock adds to knowledge of the clock's molecular mechanism.

There is no point owning a watch unless you can set it to local time. The same is true for the internal circadian clock, which operates with a 24-hour periodicity in most plants and animals. Setting, or ‘entraining’, this biological clock requires photopigments — molecules that can detect light. Although the identity of the photopigments involved in circadian photoreception remains elusive, they are thought to be very different, both structurally and biochemically, from molecules involved in other aspects of the circadian clock. But on page 627of this issue, van der Horst et al.1 show that the mouse counterparts (or ‘homologues’) of plant photopigments known as cryptochromes are required for normal functioning of the mouse circadian clock. This surprising result brings putative light-sensitive molecules directly into the central clock mechanism.

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Figure 1: A plant-animal connection.

CORBIS/ENZO & PAOLO RAGAZINNI

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David Whitmore and Paolo Sassone-Corsi are at the Institut de Gntique et de Biologie Molculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS-INSERM-ULP, BP 163 , Illkirch, 67404, Strasbourg, France

    David Whitmore & Paolo Sassone-Corsi

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  1. David Whitmore
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  2. Paolo Sassone-Corsi
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Whitmore, D., Sassone-Corsi, P. Cryptic clues to clock function. Nature 398, 557–558 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19186

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