A meticulous series of experiments – and the fortuitous use of a vacuum cleaner – lead to breakthrough new insight on the genetic basis of epilepsy.Circadian rhythms -- the normal ups and downs of body rhythms – help organize physiological processes into a 24 hour cycle, affecting everything from body temperature, hormone levels and heart rate, to pain thresholds. Scientists have now discovered that the combined deletion of three circadian genes, encoding the PAR bZip transcription factor protein family, results in accelerated aging and severe epilepsy in mice. Owing to the roughly 95% identity of PAR bZip proteins between mice and humans, it is anticipated that PAR bZip mutations may also underlie some forms of human epilepsy. A copy of this important new study is being released in advance of its June 15th publication date by the journal Genes & Development (http://www.genesdev.org/).
