Shining a light on internal clocks - the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Credit: Professor Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark. Read Time:
Humans have them, so do other animals and plants â now research reveals that non-photosynthetic bacteria too have internal daily clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.
The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.
Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.
Could Discovery of Circadian Clocks in Bacteria Have Implications for Drug Delivery Timing, Industrial Biotech?
January 11, 2021
Shining a light on internal clocks - the bacterium Bacillus subtilis [Professor Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark]
Research headed by scientists at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU), Munich, has shown that just like humans and other organisms bacteria have internal clocks that align with the 24-hour day-night cycle. “We’ve found for the first time that nonphotosynthetic bacteria can tell the time,” said LMU research lead Martha Merrow, PhD. “They adapt their molecular workings to the time of day by reading the cycles in the light or in the temperature environment.”
Credit: Professor Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark
Humans have them, so do other animals and plants. Now research reveals that bacteria too have internal clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.
The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.
Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.
Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight and temperature to synchronise biological clocks to their environment. It is why we experience the jarring effects of jet lag as our internal clocks are temporarily mismatched before aligning to the new cycle of light and dark at our travel destination.
Bacterial bioclock
Researchers have used the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to shine a light on internal clocks. Credit: Ákos Kovács, Technical University of Denmark
The ebb and flow of our daily lives revolves largely around our sleep cycle, which is governed by our body’s biological clock. Other animals and plants also have these internal timing mechanisms to cope with light changes across days and even seasons – and now researchers have discovered that bacteria do, too.
“We’ve found for the first time that non-photosynthetic bacteria can tell the time,” says lead author Martha Merrow, a chronobiologist from Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU), in Munich, Germany.
Date Time
Bacteria can tell time
Humans have them, so do other animals and plants – now research reveals that bacteria too have internal daily clocks that align with the 24-hour cycle of life on Earth.
The research answers a long-standing biological question and could have implications for the timing of drug delivery, biotechnology, and how we develop timely solutions for crop protection.
Biological clocks or circadian rhythms are exquisite internal timing mechanisms that are widespread across nature enabling living organisms to cope with the major changes that occur from day to night, even across seasons.
Existing inside cells, these molecular rhythms use external cues such as daylight and temperature to synchronise biological clocks to their environment. It is why we experience the jarring effects of jet lag as our internal clocks are temporarily mismatched before aligning to the new cycle of light and dark at our travel destination.