Throughout my career as a biologist, I have always been fascinated by interactions between an organism’s external environment and consequent molecular responses to these stimuli. How do organisms adapt to and prepare for living in a nonconstant environment? What molecular machinery is responsible for an organism’s ability to recognize and fine-tune itself to external cues? My current research project, “Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of melatonin as a humoral zeitgeber in Neurospora crassa”, asks questions like these to address longstanding mysteries around melatonin signaling and conservation across Eukaryotes. While melatonin is naturally synthesized in almost all living organisms, melatonin secretion and signaling is closely coupled to external, cycling light conditions and an organism’s endogenous circadian rhythm. Using Neurospora, my works aims to characterize the circadian response to melatonin in cycling and constant conditions and uncover the molecular machinery responsible for melatonin-induced alterations to circadian phase and period length. Another major aspect of my research is to examine potential conservation of melatonin biosynthesis and signaling between higher and lower Eukaryotes. Through structural comparison of fungal GPCR’s to human melatonin receptors, I identified at least one melatonin-related receptor in fungi with similar downstream signaling responses to human receptors (Maienza et al., 2025). The hope I have for my project is to provide the field with substantial evidence that melatonin synthesis and signaling are conserved across Eukaryotes, and to present Neurospora crassa as a valuable model organism for melatonin pharmacology research.