TOWARDS A MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY OF THE CIRCADIAN CLOCK AND SLEEP OF MAMMALS

Citation
Pj. Shiromani et Wj. Schwartz, TOWARDS A MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY OF THE CIRCADIAN CLOCK AND SLEEP OF MAMMALS, Advances in neuroimmunology, 5(2), 1995, pp. 217-230
Citations number
94
Categorie Soggetti
Neurosciences,Immunology
Journal title
ISSN journal
09605428
Volume
5
Issue
2
Year of publication
1995
Pages
217 - 230
Database
ISI
SICI code
0960-5428(1995)5:2<217:TAMOTC>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
Behavioral states of rest and activity are temporally organized. Since the beginning of life on Earth, plants and animals have been forced t o adapt to the daily rhythm of the planet's rotation about its axis. I n complex vertebrates (birds and mammals), rest and activity have evol ved into the electrophysiologically and behaviorally distinct states o f sleep and wakefulness. The evolutionary emergence of bouts of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may be even more recent; the echidna, one of the earliest mammals, lacks this sleep stage (Siegel et al., 1994). Th e cycling of these behavioral states is under neural control, and much is known about their cellular basis, but the underlying events at the molecular level are virtually unknown. Here each of us highlights som e of the new approaches for investigating the molecular substrate for behavioral state control of circadian rhythmicity (WJS) and sleep (PJS ) in mammals.