Circadian Rhythmicity in Bacteria and Microbial Populations

Dear Colleagues,

The circadian clock is a ubiquitous feature present in almost every free-living organism, including animals, plants, and bacteria. The term “circadian” originates from the Latin meaning circa (about) and diem (a day). Circadian clocks evolved as adaptations to the Earth's daily oscillation of light and external temperature. They are based on molecular mechanisms, which regulate physiology and behavior. However, each kingdom has its own unique way to anticipate daily changes. Nevertheless, they share common characteristics among all the organisms studied thus far. For many years, it was thought that prokaryotic organisms lacked internal time-keeping mechanisms, since in many bacteria, the lifespan of one generation is shorter than 24 h; therefore, scientists believed that microbes did not require a circadian clock. It was not until the 1980s when Huang et al. described cyanobacteria as the first prokaryote to express daily transcriptional patterns. In 1998, the molecular mechanism of the cyanobacterial KaiABC core oscillator was discovered. However, recent discoveries in K. aerogenes and B. subtilis demonstrated that KaiABC is not required for circadian rhythmicity in bacteria. Additionally, microbial populations, such as the gut microbiome, also demonstrate daily patterns of abundance and function. With this Special Issue, we intend to highlight research and review articles that discuss bacterial rhythmicity, from established and newly emerging prokaryotes, and microbial populations that demonstrate circadian rhythmicity.

Dr. Kinga B Graniczkowska
Prof. Dr. Bart Weimer
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bacteria is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• circadian clock
• rhythmicity
• bacteria
• microbiome
• oscillator
• phase