Categories for evaluation

To test our hypothesis, we compared Tppp -/- mice to their wildtype (WT) littermates in three key categories. The first category was locomotor activity, which was measured continuously in identical environments for five days under 12:12 LD conditions and 21 days under DD conditions. The second category was clock gene expression, which included serial quantification of Clock, Bmal1, Period1, Period2, Cryptochrome1, and Cryptochrome2 mRNA isolated from dissected suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) tissue. The third and final category was serial serum melatonin concentration. Both clock gene expression and serum melatonin were measured at four time points throughout the LD photoperiod following completion of the 12:12 LD locomotor activity data collection.