HISTORICAL

DEVELOPMENTS IN
CHRONOBIOLOGY
Dr. Jeni Padua, PhD.
Visiting Researcher, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo,Spain
Erasmus Mundus Euphrates Fellow, European Commission
Indian Science Academies’ SR Fellow-CCMB, Hyderabad
Dean of Sciences, Holy Cross College, Nagercoil, India.
CHRONOBIOLOGY
•Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic(cyclic)phenomena

in living organisms and their adaptation to solar and lunar related rhythms.

•These cycles are known as biological rhythms.

•Biological rhythm varies from milliseconds in ocular field potential to years

•The variation of the timing and duration of biological activity in living

organisms occur for many essential biological processes.

BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS OCCUR

1. In animals (eating, sleeping, mating, hibernating, migration,

cellular regeneration etc.)

2. In plants (leaf movements, photosynthetic reactions etc.)

3. In microbial organisms such as fungi and protozoa.

The most important rhythm in chronobiology is the circadian

rhythm.
HISTORY OF CHRONOBIOLOGY

• In 4th Century BC, Androsthenes (Ship

captain of Alexandar the Great) described
diurnal leaf movements of the Tamarind
tree.
• In 13th Century, Noon and Midnight
Manual (Chinese) literature mentioned the
Circadian or diurnal process in humans.
• In 1729, Jean-Jacques d Ortous de Mairan a French scientist noted 24-hour

patterns in the movement of the leaves of the plant Mimosa pudica.

• In 1751, Carlous Linneaus
(Swedish Botanist and naturalist)
designed a flower clock using
certain species of flowers.

• By arranging the selected species in

a circular pattern, he designed a
clock that indicated the time of day
by the flowers that were open at
each given hour.
• In 1832, de Candolle discovers that the Mimosa opens it’s
leaves 1-2 hours earlier each day.

• In 1896, Patrick and Gilbert observed that during a

prolonged period of sleep deprivation, sleepiness increases.

• In 1906, Simpson and Gailbraith found the daily temperature

rhythms in monkeys persist in constant darkness.
• In 1918, J.S. Szymanski showed that animals
are capable of maintaining 24-hour activity
patterns in the absence of external cues such
as light and changes in temperature.

• In 1922, Richter showed the persistent

rhythms of activity in animals (rats)

• In 1959, Franz Halberg (University of

Minnesota - Father of American
Chronobiology) coined the term “Circadian”.
• In 20th Century, Auguste Forel, Oskar Wahl
noticed Circadian rhythms in the rhythmic
feeding times of bees.

• In 1967, Erwin Bunning described physiological

clock in plant.

• In 1970s, Ron Konopka and Seymour Benzer

isolated the first clock mutant in Drosophila and
mapped the “period" gene, the first discovered
genetic component of a circadian clock.
• In 1984, the first clock gene was
thereby isolated and its structure was
molecularly characterized.

• In 1994 Michael Young discovered a

second clock gene, timeless, encoding
the TIM protein that was required for a
normal circadian rhythm
THANK YOU
Dr. Jeni Padua, PhD.
Visiting Researcher, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo,Spain
Erasmus Mundus Euphrates Fellow, European Commission
Indian Science Academies’ SR Fellow-CCMB, Hyderabad
Dean of Sciences, Holy Cross College, Nagercoil, India.