9310256 Siwicki Why do we go to bed at night and get up in the morning? Because our behavior is governed by a circadian rhythm. Our brain contains a clock that cycles with a 24 hour periodicity. It turns out that the behavior of most organisms, even fruit flies, is governed by such a clock. Animals like the fruit fly provide model systems where the genetics and the molecular biology of rhythms can be studied in detail. With this NSF grant, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Kathleen Siwicki will develop a new model system for the study of circadian rhythms. During the last grant period she showed that the same gene governs rhythms in drosophila and manduca. Manduca, however, has much larger neurons, and Dr. Siwicki will be able to record from them and discover how their behavior changes as a result of manipulations of the rhythm gene. Since there is good evidence that similar genes govern rhythmic behavior in all organisms, the results on Manduca will be applicable to the study of cylic disorders in human such as sleep disturbances, eating disorders, and seasonal affective disorder.***
