Neurogenetics of Drosophila Circadian Rhythms

The isolation of single-gene mutations has proved to be a useful tool in investigating the molecular basis of cellular processes. Although the discovery that living organisms possess endogenous oscillators with a period of about a day (circadian) was made more than two centuries ago, the molecular nature of these oscillators is still unknown. In an effort to understand the genetic control of circadian rhythmicity, as well as to provide a means of identifying a molecule that may be a component of the underlying oscillator, my laboratory is studying the genetics, physiology, and behavior of Drosophila that bear chemically induced mutations which alter the periodicity of the circadian eclosion and adult locomotor activity rhythms. This paper summarizes some of the results of these investigations.