POSITIONAL CLONING AND SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF THE DROSOPHILA CLOCK GENE, TIMELESS

The Drosophila genes timeless (tim) and period (per) interact, and bot h are required for production of circadian rhythms. Here the positiona l cloning and sequencing of tim are reported. The tim gene encodes a p reviously uncharacterized protein of 1389 amino acids, and possibly an other protein of 1122 amino acids. The arrhythmic mutation tim(01) is a 64-base pair deletion that truncates TIM to 749 amino acids. Absence of sequence similarity to the PER dimerization motif (PAS) indicates that direct interaction between PER and TIM would require a heterotypi c protein association.