RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Electrical Hyperexcitation of Lateral Ventral Pacemaker Neurons Desynchronizes Downstream Circadian Oscillators in the Fly Circadian Circuit and Induces Multiple Behavioral Periods
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 479
OP 489
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3915-05.2006
VO 26
IS 2
A1 Michael N. Nitabach
A1 Ying Wu
A1 Vasu Sheeba
A1 William C. Lemon
A1 John Strumbos
A1 Paul K. Zelensky
A1 Benjamin H. White
A1 Todd C. Holmes
YR 2006
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/2/479.abstract
AB Coupling of autonomous cellular oscillators is an essential aspect of circadian clock function but little is known about its circuit requirements. Functional ablation of the pigment-dispersing factor-expressing lateral ventral subset (LNV) of Drosophila clock neurons abolishes circadian rhythms of locomotor activity. The hypothesis that LNVs synchronize oscillations in downstream clock neurons was tested by rendering the LNVs hyperexcitable via transgenic expression of a low activation threshold voltage-gated sodium channel. When the LNVs are made hyperexcitable, free-running behavioral rhythms decompose into multiple independent superimposed oscillations and the clock protein oscillations in the dorsal neuron 1 and 2 subgroups of clock neurons are phase-shifted. Thus, regulated electrical activity of the LNVs synchronize multiple oscillators in the fly circadian pacemaker circuit.