Eukaryotic circadian clocks impact nearly every aspect of physiology and behavior. Their dysfunction contributes to cancer, as well as to mental illness (e.g., depression) and to metabolic diseases (e.g., diabetes). While we know a great deal about the details of molecular timekeeping within pacemaker cells, we know much less concerning the output information produced by circadian pacemaker cells. To that end, we study the physiology of circadian output in Drosophila by focusing on the mechanisms, dynamics and regulation of neuropeptide modulation.
