Abstract
In order to elucidate the molecular mechanism for the circadian clock in an atomic level, we established a new experimental system for circadian clock studies in the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1 strain. We cloned the circadian clock gene cluster kaiABC and clock-related genes such as pex and sasA from T. elongatus, overexpressed the genes in Escherichia coli, purified the clock proteins and clock-related proteins. We analyzed the biochemical structures of these proteins and are also analyzing their three-dimensional structures by electron microscopy and X-ray crystal structure analysis.
