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And the beat goes on: from clock to behavior

Nature Neuroscience volume 19, pages 529–530 (2016)Cite this article

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Master circadian clocks in discrete neurons trigger profound daily changes in brain states, such as sleep and wake states. A study now finds a circuit through which these pacemakers act to control daily behavioral rhythms in Drosophila.

To discover clock output neurons, Cavey et al.2 exploited the ease of Drosophila genetics to screen over 30 neuropeptides for disruption of circadian locomotor behavior using neuronal transgenic RNA interference. Through this approach, they demonstrated that leucokinin (LK), previously linked to feeding and diuretic activity3,4, is also essential for persistent locomotor activity rhythms under conditions of constant darkness. Unlike canonical clock neurons, neither LK+ neurons nor those expressing its receptor LKR express the core clock protein Timeless, consistent with the idea that these are not components of the master clock but instead potential output neurons.

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Figure 1: The Drosophila clock networks driving circadian behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthieu Flourakis and Ravi Allada are in the Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.,

    Matthieu Flourakis & Ravi Allada

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  1. Matthieu Flourakis
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  2. Ravi Allada
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Correspondence to Ravi Allada.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Flourakis, M., Allada, R. And the beat goes on: from clock to behavior. Nat Neurosci 19, 529–530 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4278

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