Flies as models for circadian clock adaptation to environmental challenges. (22nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Helfrich‐Förster, Charlotte; Bertolini, Enrico; Menegazzi, Pamela
• Is Part Of: European journal of neuroscience. Volume 51:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 166
• Page End: 181
• Publication Date: 2018-10-22
• Subjects: circadian rhythm -- cryptochrome -- latitudinal adaptations -- locomotor activity -- pigment‐dispersing factor; Nervous system -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14180
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-816X

Abstract

Abstract: Life on earth is assumed to have developed in tropical regions that are characterized by regular 24 hr cycles in irradiance and temperature that remain the same throughout the seasons. All organisms developed circadian clocks that predict these environmental cycles and prepare the organisms in advance for them. A central question in chronobiology is how endogenous clocks changed in order to anticipate very different cyclical environmental conditions such as extremely short and long photoperiods existing close to the poles. Flies of the family Drosophilidae can be found all over the world—from the tropics to subarctic regions—making them unprecedented models for studying the evolutionary processes that underlie the adaptation of circadian clocks to different latitudes. This review summarizes our current understanding of these processes. We discuss evolutionary changes in the clock genes and in the clock network in the brain of different Drosophilids that may have caused behavioural adaptations to high latitudes. Abstract : This review summarizes our current understanding of the evolutionary processes that underlie the molecular, neuronal, and behavioural adaptation of fly circadian clocks to different latitudes.