Quantitative analysis of Drosophila period gene transcription in living animals

Journal
J Biol Rhythms
Volume
12
Date
June 1997
Issue
3
Pages
204-217
Full Article
Plautz JD
Straume M
Stanewsky R
Jamison CF
Brandes C
Dowse HB
Hall JC
Kay SA
Abstract

To determine the in vivo regulatory pattern of the clock gene period (per), the authors recently developed transgenic Drosophila carrying a luciferase cDNA fused to the promoter region of per. They have now carried out noninvasive, high time-resolution experiments allowing high-throughput monitoring of circadian bioluminescence rhythms in individual living adults for several days. This immediately solved several problems (resulting directly from individual asyn chrony within a population) that have accompanied previous biochemical ex periments in which groups of animals were sacrificed at each time point. Furthermore, the authors have developed numerical analysis methods for auto matically determining rhythmicity associated with bioluminescence records from single flies. This has revealed some features of per gene transcription that were previously unappreciated and provides a general strategy for the analysis of rhythmic time series in the study of molecular rhythms.