Presenter Information

Ruth J. MeierFollow

Major

Neuroscience

Anticipated Graduation Year

2023

Access Type

Open Access

Abstract

The circadian system produces ~24-hour cycles in diverse biological processes. We are interested in understanding how the circadian system coordinately regulates different outputs, including locomotor activity and feeding behavior. Circadian rhythms are commonly studied by monitoring rest:activity rhythms in fruit flies; however, much less in known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling feeding:fasting rhythms. The fruit fly brain contains ~150 central clock cells that keep time through a cell-autonomous molecular clock. These cells are subdivided into anatomically and functionally discrete neuronal clusters. Here, we have monitored feeding behavior in flies in which we have used cell-specific CRISPR/CAS9-mediated genome editing to eliminate neuronal clock function within different clock cell populations. We find that free-running feeding:fasting rhythms require molecular clock function within multiple individual clock cell populations, and furthermore that the severity of the effect varies according to the cell population targeted. These results parallel those observed when using locomotor activity as a behavioral endpoint, suggesting that circadian control of these two distinct behavioral outputs diverges in downstream circadian output cells rather than in cells of the intrinsic core clock network.

Faculty Mentors & Instructors

Daniel Cavanaugh, Associate Professor, Department of Biology

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Central Clock Control of Drosophila Feeding Rhythms

The circadian system produces ~24-hour cycles in diverse biological processes. We are interested in understanding how the circadian system coordinately regulates different outputs, including locomotor activity and feeding behavior. Circadian rhythms are commonly studied by monitoring rest:activity rhythms in fruit flies; however, much less in known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling feeding:fasting rhythms. The fruit fly brain contains ~150 central clock cells that keep time through a cell-autonomous molecular clock. These cells are subdivided into anatomically and functionally discrete neuronal clusters. Here, we have monitored feeding behavior in flies in which we have used cell-specific CRISPR/CAS9-mediated genome editing to eliminate neuronal clock function within different clock cell populations. We find that free-running feeding:fasting rhythms require molecular clock function within multiple individual clock cell populations, and furthermore that the severity of the effect varies according to the cell population targeted. These results parallel those observed when using locomotor activity as a behavioral endpoint, suggesting that circadian control of these two distinct behavioral outputs diverges in downstream circadian output cells rather than in cells of the intrinsic core clock network.