Darrell Moore

In collaboration with Dr. Thomas Jones here at ETSU, we have discovered that some species of spiders (specifically in the superfamily Araneoidea) have exceptionally fast-running circadian clocks and others have exceptionally slow-running circadian clocks, with average periods as short as 17.8 hours and as long as 29.1 hours. Organisms with biological clocks that have periods deviating by more than about 2 hours from the Earth’s 24-hour solar day typically suffer severe negative consequences such as multiple disease states and continuous jet-lag. Therefore, theoretically, our weird spider species should not exist, yet they are widely distributed across southern North America! Why are these spider circadian clocks so different from those in most other organisms? What is it about the biology of these spider clock systems that allows them to exist without paying a severe cost? What insights can these strange spider clocks give us about fundamental clock principles? Answering these questions is my primary research objective. Dr. Jones and I have assembled a talented team of researchers (Drs. Nadia Ayoub and Natalia Toporikova at Washington & Lee University and Dr. Jess Petko at Penn State, York) to help us get at these questions. Thanks to their expertise, we’re using a variety of approaches: phylogenetics, mathematical modeling, mRNA and protein expression assays, and classical physiological and behavioral techniques. We’re also interested in expanding our research into the exciting new field of chronoecology.

My students and I studied circadian rhythms in honey bees for many years, especially the honey bee time memory. This is a sophisticated behavior, controlled by the circadian clock, in which the bee remembers and returns to a nectar or pollen source at the exact time and place that it found the food on the previous day. Although most of my research time is dedicated to the spider circadian project, I still maintain collaborations with colleagues (University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, Vanderbilt University, University of Manitoba) who study honey bee circadian rhythms.

 

 

• Neurobiology (BIOL4277)
• Research Orientation (BIOL 2992)
• Seminar in Biological Sciences (BIOL 4300) 
• Animal Behavior (BIOL 4357/5357)