ABSTRACT
Deregulations of the circadian clock have been reported to be associated with several pathological phenotypes ranging from sleep disorders to susceptibility to cancer. This chapter provides an overview of established experimental methodologies and computational models in circadian field. It presents an outline of in vivo methodologies for studying the circadian clock in various model organisms. The chapter discusses some of the emerging technologies and recent developments for the quantification of clock-associated components, which may lead to new insights into this remarkable time-generating system. It illustrates different methods used to measure the expression of a gene. These include real-time bioluminescence, real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), northern blots, RNase protection assays, RNA in situ hybridization, RNA expression microarrays (REMs), and RNA sequencing (RNAseq). The combination of bioluminescence data with high-throughput genomic approaches offers complementary information on circadian function in vitro and allows for further investigation using in vivo models.
