生物日节律（circadian rhythm）也叫昼夜节律，是以约昼夜24 h为周期的、在生命体中普遍存在的节律性生理生化和行为活动，是众多生物节律或生物钟的一种。美国的3位科学家杰弗理·霍尔（Jeffrey C.Hall）、迈克尔·罗斯巴什（Michael Ros-bash）和迈克尔·杨（Michael W.Young）因发现调节生物日节律行为的基因并阐明其作用原理获得了2017年的诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。这项工作揭示了一个普遍存在的基本生命现象的分子机理，对了解生命的运行原理以及生命在演化过程中与环境之间的相互作用有着重要的意义，同时也为治疗由于生物钟失常而导致的人类疾病和开发调控生物钟元件的药物奠定了基础。本文介绍生物节律的研究历史，解读生物节律的分子机理，展望生物节律研究的方向，并探讨其对人类健康和农业的意义。
Circadian rhythm, with a period of approximately 24 hours, is one of the most popular biological rhythms or biological clocks in nature. Three American scientists, Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, won the 2017 Nobel Price in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. Their work uncovered the molecular mechanisms of a fundamental biological phenomenon and shed lights on the interactions between living organisms and their environments and provided bases for developing therapeutic methods to treat circadian rhythm-related diseases. This article summarizes the history of the circadian rhythm research, describes the molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythm, and discusses the future research of biological rhythm and its potential application in medicine and agriculture.
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