The discoveries of molecular mechanisms for the circadian rhythm: The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Abstract

Circadian clocks evolved to allow plants and animals to adapt their behaviors to the 24-hr change in the external environment due to the Earth's rotation. While the first scientific observation of circadian rhythm in the plant leaf movement may be dated back to the early 18th century, it took 200 years to realize that the leaf movement is controlled by an endogenous circadian clock. The cloning and characterization of the first Drosophila clock gene period in the early 1980s, independently by Jeffery C. Hall and Michael Rosbash at Brandeis University and Michael Young at Rockefeller University, paved the way for their further discoveries of additional genes and proteins, culminating in establishing the so-called transcriptional translational feedback loop (TTFL) model for the generation of autonomous oscillator with a period of ∼24 h. The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to honor their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.

Keywords: 2017 Nobel Prize; Circadian clocks; Circadian rhythms; Clock genes; TTFL model.

Fig. 1

Oversimplified schematic drawing showing the core transcriptional translational feedback loop (TTFL) clockwork mechanism in Drosophila (left) and mammals (right).