Researchers are continuing to learn more about the phenomenal scope of biological and metabolic functions that are related to light and the natural rhythms of day and night. Disruptions in these rhythms can have a significant range of physical and health effects, scientists have found.
This fungus, Neurospora, has been studied for decades in genetic research, along with other model systems such as fruit flies, laboratory rodents and other models. It was first identified as a "red bread mold" in the 1800s and studied by the famous French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, and is still especially useful for research on circadian rhythms and gene regulation.
The research was published in Eukaryotic Cell, a professional journal, in work supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. Collaborators on the study were from OSU, the University of California/Berkeley, University of California/Riverside, and the laboratories of Deborah Bell-Pedersen at Texas A&M University and Michael Brunner at Universitt Heidelberg.
"Light signaling pathways and circadian clock are inextricably linked and have profound effects on behavior in most organisms," the researchers wrote in their study. "Our findings provide links between the key circadian activator and effectors in downstream regulatory pathways."