Syllabus
1. Chronobiology as research field, its history and terminology
2. Biological rhythms and their roles in strategies for adaptation and animal survival in external environment
3. Circadian pacemaker and its formal properties
4. Circadian systems and their evolution across species - from procaryotes to humans
5. Genetics of the circadian clocks
6. Mechanisms of circadian regulations of cellular functions
7. Mechanisms of circadian regulations of physiological functions
8. Synchronization of the circadian clock with external environment
9. Melatonin, its role in the body. Melatonin and chronotherapy.
10. Photoperiod and photoperiodic regulation of physiological functions
11. Circadian regulation of sleep, learning and migration
12. Changes of the circadian clocks during the time and significance of the regulation for health
Annotation
Chronobiology studies temporal rhythmic regulation of biological processes in living organisms, from gene expression to behavior. The biological rhythms may run with a various periods but the most important are circadian, i.e. about one day, rhythms which persist even in a non-periodic environment.
Circadian rhythms can be found in most of the organisms known so far, from unicellular prokaryotic to mammals, including humans. Malfunction of the coordination in the timekeeping system impacts negatively adaptation to external environment, regulation of physiological functions and health.
The lectures may be of interest mostly for bachelor, magister and doctoral students interested in physiology, zoology, molecular biology and biomedicine.