= Seymour Benzer
{c}
<Seymour Benzer> helped turn the study of <behavior> into an experimental problem in <genetics>. With <Ronald J. Konopka>, he reported fruit-fly <mutations> that abolished daily rhythmicity or changed its period to approximately 19 or 28 hours. Both adult emergence and individual locomotor activity were affected.<Clock Mutants of Drosophila melanogaster by Ronald J. Konopka and Seymour Benzer>[1971, abstract and printed pp. 2112–2113]{ref}
Flies were tested in constant darkness, while infrared monitoring recorded individual movement without imposing a daily light cycle. Persistence of altered timing under those conditions supported an internal <circadian rhythm> mechanism, rather than merely a different immediate response to the lamps switching on. The mutations mapped to the same functional <gene> on the <X chromosome>.<Clock Mutants of Drosophila melanogaster by Ronald J. Konopka and Seymour Benzer>[Materials and Methods, locomotor apparatus; Results, mapping and complementation]{ref}
\Image[https://caltechsites-prod-assets.resources.caltech.edu/neuroscience70/images/Benzer_and_fly_model.74368c2f.fill-1200x675-c100.jpg]
{title=Portrait of <Seymour Benzer>}
{description=Caltech photograph identifying Benzer beside an enlarged fruit-fly model.}
{source=https://neuroscience.caltech.edu/about/history-caltech-neuroscience}
{width=260}
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