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Retinal Rhythms
14 November 2015

Retinal Rhythms

We can all feel the effects of our internal body clocks, making sure we’re hungry at lunchtime and ready to go to sleep at bedtime, all the while coordinating a host of processes behind the scenes. These circadian rhythms are controlled locally in most of our tissues, but synchronised by the central nervous system, which in turn is tuned to day and night cycles thanks to input from the retina. Local time-keeping in the retina itself, however, occurs independently from the brain; instead, the rhythm is set by a light-sensitive protein known as neuropsin, highlighted in blue in the mouse retina shown. Related proteins have long been known to be responsible for colour vision, and for passing on light signals to the central circadian clock, but the importance of neuropsin remained a mystery until very recently. With more research, other roles could be uncovered for this poorly-understood protein.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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