TalkWhen You Unwind at Night, Does Your DNA?
There’s a new twist (or lack thereof) on the question of how our biological clocks work. New research indicates that our biological clocks influence the activity of a large number of genes by causing the chromosomes to coil tightly during the day and relax during the night.
Read more and see neat illustrations
From Biomedical Beat:
When we go to sleep at night, our bodies have a chance to unwind. Our DNA may be doing the same thing. Vanderbilt University biologist Carl Johnson has discovered that the DNA of tiny blue-green algae—a simple organism with a biological clock—is coiled tightly during the day and more relaxed at night. This pattern allows certain genes to change their activity in light or darkness, essentially helping the organism tell time and suggesting why biological clocks influence so many biochemical processes. Although more research needs to be done, Johnson speculates that human DNA may also wind and unwind according to time of day.
Image: Blue-green algae containing a protein that fluoresces in response to the microbe’s biological clock. Courtesy of the Johnson lab.
December 20th, 2007 at 11:55 am
That is such a cool fact!!! I wonder if they react to things other than sunlight — can chemicals, or say plain old coffee screw up our bilogical clock? Neat stuff, I want to see where they go with the research
December 21st, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I don’t know what the science says, but my experience with plain old coffee says, YES. Feed me coffee and I will (ironically) sleep much longer that night. On the other hand, if http://thepersonalgenome.com/ rel=”nofollow”>Jasonis still sans coffee, the world may suffer less genius as a result….