GRK 2749:  Biological Clocks on Multiple Time Scales

• Subject Area: Neurosciences ; Microbiology, Virology and Immunology ; Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: since 2022
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448909517

Periodic phenomena are widespread in both the inanimate and animate world. Geophysical rhythms such as the rotation of the earth around its axis posed strong evolutionary constrains on life on earth. Consequently, internal biological clocks evolved that allow organisms to predict and adjust to regular changes in geophysical parameters such as the daily light-dark cycle that is anticipated by circadian clocks. Next to circadian clocks with periods of ~ 24 h there are abundant biological oscillators on multiple time scales with frequencies spanning milliseconds to year-long life cycles. Thus, clocks/oscillators generate and orchestrate biological time. Knowledge of molecular components of circadian clocks is accumulating, especially in the insect Drosophila. However, less is known about biological oscillators on other time scales, or in non-model organisms. It remains unknown how these multiscale oscillators are built, whether they are “true clocks”, how they function, and how/whether they synchronize to form a common time axis coordinated with diverse environmental rhythms. Thus, the research training group (RTG) “multiscale clocks” analyses multiscale biological oscillators/clocks and whether/how they couple to bridge different time scales. We hypothesize that multiscale timing is based upon highly adaptive multiscale “master clocks” generating interlinked, embedded oscillations that tune into multiscale superimposed environmental rhythms via resonance. It is proposed that for light-dependent organisms the circadian clock is the basal general time frame for other oscillations. The novel hypothesis will be challenged in interdisciplinary projects in light-(non-)sensitive uni-/ multicellular organisms that developed at different times in evolution. Focus is the analysis of neuropeptides, second messengers, and kinases as coupling factors of multiscale clocks/oscillators. Quantitative analysis of oscillators as archetypes of timing and the analysis of dynamical systems formed by coupled multiscale oscillators requires expert knowledge across different disciplines. Thus, the RTG consists of experts in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and systems theory. Collaborations between us date back several years fostered by bridge funding of our University. The RTG is imbedded in the interdisciplinary Center of Nanostructure Science and Technology and linked to the study programs of Nanoscience (BSc. MSc.) allowing for an interdisciplinary PhD. The graduate school offers a flexible, online-supported graduation program adjusted to the respective needs and free choices of graduate students. It supplies firm background in the different disciplines, while allowing for individual specialization. Thus, while students focus on one discipline in one laboratory as home base, they also become experts in interdisciplinary research fit for the growing challenges in our complex world and fit for developing innovative ideas for respective technical solutions.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Kassel
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Monika Stengl
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Elfriede Friedmann; Professor Dr. Thomas Fuhrmann-Lieker; Professor Dr. Martin Ezequiel Garcia; Professor Dr. Friedrich-Wilhelm Herberg; Dr. Katja Kapp; Dr. Roland Klassen; Professor Dr. Georg Mayer; Professor Dr. Arno H.J. Müller; Privatdozentin Susanne Neupert, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Cyril Popov; Professor Dr. Raffael Schaffrath; Professor Dr. Werner M. Seiler; Professor Dr.-Ing. Olaf Stursberg