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BIOLOGICAL OSCILLATIONS

Locked body clocks

Nature Physics volume 15, pages 989–990 (2019)Cite this article

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Synchronization can induce both order and disorder, betraying a multistability that is rife in living systems. Evidence now suggests that the circadian clock synchronizes with the cell cycle, and that this behaviour is common to different species.

The cell cycle and the circadian clock are two of the most fundamental oscillators in biology, although they operate on quite different timescales: the circadian clock relates to daily rhythm whereas the cell cycle acts on scales ranging from minutes to hours. In spite of this difference, there is some — albeit limited — evidence to suggest that these two clocks might influence each other. Now, writing in Nature Physics, Colas Droin and colleagues have undertaken a thorough investigation of this interaction, reporting convincing observations of synchronization effects between the two clocks1.

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Fig. 1: Arnold tongues represent the regions of synchronization of coupled oscillators.

References

  1. Droin, C., Paquet, E. R. & Naef, F. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0598-1 (2019).

  2. Jensen, M. H., Bak, P. & Bohr, T. Phys. Rev. A 30, 1960–1969 (1984).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Mathias L. Heltberg & Mogens H. Jensen

  2. Laboratoire de Physique Theorique, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France

    Mathias L. Heltberg

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  1. Mathias L. Heltberg
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  2. Mogens H. Jensen
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Correspondence to Mogens H. Jensen.

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Heltberg, M.L., Jensen, M.H. Locked body clocks. Nat. Phys. 15, 989–990 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0617-2

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