William E. Bradshaw <mosquito@uoregon.edu>
Course Description and Goals:
The two great rhythms of the biosphere are the daily and seasonal variations in temperature, moisture, and resources. Plants and animals anticipate and prepare in advance for these environmental variations through the use of innate biological clocks. This course covers the phenomenon of biological time keeping at ecological, evolutionary, behavioral, physiological, neurological, and molecular, levels. The outcome of virtually every experiment from molecular to ecological in the lab or field with eukaryotes depends upon the time of day or year at which one runs those experiments. Likewise, the efficacy of therapeutics and surgery can depend upon the time of day or year at which they are administered.
Text: Chronobiology, Biological Timekeeping. Edited by Dunlap, Loros, and DeCoursey. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
Additional readings from the original literature will be covered in discussions.
Course outline:
1. Overview of biological timing
2. Behavioral ecology and evolution of biological timing
3. The day within: fundamental properties of innate daily (circadian) rhythms
4. Predicting seasonal change: circannual rhythms and photoperiodism
5. Functional organization of circadian systems in multicellular animals
6. Cellular physiology of circadian pacemakers in metazoans
7. Molecular biology of circadian systems.
8. Clock–controlled processes.
9. Human circadian organization
10. Graduate presentations.
Undergraduate grades are based on a mid-term, a final, and discussion participation.
Graduate grades are based on a mid-term, a final, discussion participation, a written paper, and an oral presentation of that paper.
Prerequisites:
BI 360, and BI 320 or BI 328.