Price-Lloyd N, Elvin M, Heintzen C
Faculty of Life Sciences, Michael Smith Building, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2005 Nov;33(Pt 5):949-52. doi: 10.1042/BST20050949.
The metronomic predictability of the environment has elicited strong selection pressures for the evolution of endogenous circadian clocks. Circadian clocks drive molecular and behavioural rhythms that approximate the 24 h periodicity of our environment. Found almost ubiquitously among phyla, circadian clocks allow preadaptation to rhythms concomitant with the natural cycles of the Earth. Cycles in light intensity and temperature for example act as important cues that couple circadian clocks to the environment via a process called entrainment. This review summarizes our current understanding of the general and molecular principles of entrainment in the model organism Neurospora crassa, a simple eukaryote that has one of the best-studied circadian systems and light-signalling pathways.
环境的节律性可预测性对内源性生物钟的进化产生了强大的选择压力。生物钟驱动着分子和行为节律，这些节律与我们环境的24小时周期相近。生物钟几乎在所有门类中普遍存在，它使生物能够预先适应与地球自然周期相伴的节律。例如，光照强度和温度的周期变化作为重要线索，通过一种称为“同步化”的过程将生物钟与环境耦合起来。本综述总结了我们目前对模式生物粗糙脉孢菌中同步化的一般原理和分子原理的理解，粗糙脉孢菌是一种简单的真核生物，拥有研究最为深入的生物钟系统和光信号通路之一。
