Since the discovery of circadian rhythms in cyanobacteria in the late 1980s, the field has exploded with new information. The cyanobacterial model system for studying circadian rhythms, Synechococcus elongatus, has allowed a detailed genetic dissection of the bacterial clock due to the methods currently available in molecular, structural, and evolutionary biology.
Bacterial Circadian Programs addresses multiple aspects of bacterial circadian programs: the history and background of the cyanobacteria and circadian rhythms in microorganisms, the molecular basis, structure, and evolution of the circadian clock, entrainment of the oscillator with the environment and the control of downstream processes by the clock, the demonstration of adaptive significance and the prokaryotic clock's remarkable stability, and mathematical and synthetic oscillator models for clock function.
Experts in the field provide a timely and comprehensive review and a stepping-stone for future work on this amazing group of microorganisms and timing.
1 Classic Circadian Characteristics: Historical Perspective and Properties Relative to the Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 Model
Jayna L. Ditty and Shannon R. Mackey
2 Speculation and Hoopla: Is Diversity Expected in Cyanobacterial Circadian Timing Systems?
Stanly B. Williams
3 Circadian Rhythm of Cyanothece RF-1 (Synechococcus RF-1)
Tan-Chi Huang and Rong-Fong Lin
4 The Decade of Discovery: How Synechococcus elongatus Became a Model Circadian System 1990-2000
Carl Hirschie Johnson and Yao Xu
5 The Kai Oscillator
Tokitaka Oyama and Takao Kondo
6 NMR Studies of a Timekeeping System
Ioannis Vakonakis and Andy LiWang
7 Structural Aspects of the Cyanobacterial KaiABC Circadian Clock
Martin Egli and Phoebe L. Stewart
8 Mechanisms for Entraining the Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock System with the Environment
Shannon R. Mackey, Jayna L. Ditty, Gil Zeidner, You Chen, and Susan S. Golden
9 Factors Involved in Transcriptional Output from the Kai-Protein-Based Circadian Oscillator
Hideo Iwasaki
10 Chromosome Compaction: Output and Phase
Rachelle M. Smith and Stanly B. Williams
11 Cell Division Cycles and Circadian Rhythms
Tetsuya Mori
12 The Adaptive Value of the Circadian Clock System in Cyanobacteria
Mark A. Woelfle and Carl Hirschie Johnson
13 Stability and Noise in the Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock
Irina Mihalcescu
14 The Circadian Clock Gear in Cyanobacteria: Assembled by Evolution
Volodymyr Dvornyk
15 Circadian Clocks of Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803, Thermosynechococcus elongatus, Prochlorococcus spp., Trichodesmium spp. and Other Species
Setsuyuki Aoki and Kiyoshi Onai
16 Mathematical Modeling of the In Vitro Cyanobacterial Circadian Oscillator
Mark Byrne
17 A Synthetic Biology Approach to Understanding Biological Oscillations: Developing a Genetic Oscillator for Escherichia coli
Alexander J. Ninfa, Mariette R. Atkinson, Daniel Forger, Stephen Atkins, David Arps, Stephen Selinsky, Donald Court, Nicolas Perry, and Avraham E. Mayo
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