Biozentrum Am Hubland, Universität Würzburg, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
FEBS Lett. 2011 May 20;585(10):1435-42. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2011.02.028. Epub 2011 Feb 25.
Nowadays humans mainly rely on external, unnatural clocks such as of cell phones and alarm clocks--driven by circuit boards and electricity. Nevertheless, our body is under the control of another timer firmly anchored in our genes. This evolutionary very old biological clock drives most of our physiology and behavior. The genes that control our internal clock are conserved among most living beings. One organism that shares this ancient clock mechanism with us humans is the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster. Since it turned out that Drosophila is an excellent model, it is no surprise that its clock is very well and intensely investigated. In the following review we want to display an overview of the current understanding of Drosophila's circadian clock.
如今，人类主要依赖外部的、非自然的时钟，如手机和闹钟——这些时钟由电路板和电力驱动。然而，我们的身体受另一个计时器的控制，这个计时器牢牢地扎根在我们的基因中。这个进化得非常古老的生物钟驱动着我们的大部分生理和行为。控制我们内部时钟的基因在大多数生物中都是保守的。与我们人类共享这种古老时钟机制的生物是果蝇 Drosophila melanogaster。由于果蝇已被证明是一种出色的模型，因此毫不奇怪，人们对其生物钟进行了非常深入的研究。在下面的综述中，我们希望展示对果蝇生物钟的当前理解。
