comparative view of insect circadian clock systems

Recent studies revealed that the neuronal network controlling overt rhythms shows striking similarity in various insect orders. The pigment-dispersing factor seems commonly involved in regulating locomotor activity. However, there are considerable variations in the molecular oscillatory mechanism, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS 2010-05, Vol.67 (9), p.1397-1406
Main Authors: Tomioka, Kenji, Matsumoto, Akira
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biochemistry
Biological Clocks - physiology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cell Biology
Cellular biology
Circadian Rhythm - physiology
Comparative studies
Cryptochromes - genetics
Cryptochromes - metabolism
Feedback, Physiological - physiology
Genes, Insect
Genetics
Humans
Insect Proteins - genetics
Insect Proteins - metabolism
Insecta - anatomy & histology
Insecta - physiology
Insects
Life Sciences
Light
Locomotor activity
Molecular biology
Molecular Sequence Data
Motor Activity - physiology
Neural networks
Photoperiod
Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate - cytology
Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate - physiology
Review
Temperature
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Summary:Recent studies revealed that the neuronal network controlling overt rhythms shows striking similarity in various insect orders. The pigment-dispersing factor seems commonly involved in regulating locomotor activity. However, there are considerable variations in the molecular oscillatory mechanism, and input and output pathways among insects. In Drosophila, autoregulatory negative feedback loops that consist of clock genes, such as period and timeless are believed to create 24-h rhythmicity. Although similar clock genes have been found in some insects, the behavior of their product proteins shows considerable differences from that of Drosophila. In other insects, mammalian-type cryptochrome (cry2) seems to work as a transcriptional repressor in the feedback loop. For photic entrainment, Drosophila type cryptochrome (cry1) plays the major role in Drosophila while the compound eyes are the major photoreceptor in others. Further comparative study will be necessary to understand how this variety of clock mechanisms derived from an ancestral one.
ISSN:1420-682X
1420-9071
DOI:10.1007/s00018-009-0232-y