ArticleNature2012
Unexpected features of Drosophila circadian behavioural rhythms under natural conditions.
Article in Nature, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 133 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
133 citing papers in PubMed, 252 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Temperature-dependent modulation of light-induced circadian responses in Drosophila melanogaster.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
- Beyond adult models: Tribolium castaneum larval timekeeping reveals unexpected robustness and insights into circadian clock.Insect science · 2025Article
- The Never Given 2022 Pittendrigh/Aschoff Lecture: The Clock Network in the Brain-Insights From Insects.Journal of biological rhythms · 2025Article
- Capturing continuous, long timescale behavioral changes in Drosophila melanogaster postural data.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- The circadian clock gene period regulates the composition and daily bacterial load of the gut microbiome in Drosophila melanogaster.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Rhythms in insect olfactory systems: underlying mechanisms and outstanding questions.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Review
- Drosophila ezoana uses morning and evening oscillators to adjust its rhythmic activity to different daylengths but only the morning oscillator to measure night length for photoperiodic responses.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024Article
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- Indirect genetic effects for social network structure inPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
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- Editorial: Biological rhythms: Evolution, population biology, and adaptation.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
73 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Circadian clocks have evolved to synchronize physiology, metabolism and behaviour to the 24-h geophysical cycles of the Earth. Drosophila melanogaster's rhythmic locomotor behaviour provides the main phenotype for the identification of higher eukaryotic clock genes. Under laboratory light-dark cycles, flies show enhanced activity before lights on and off signals, and these anticipatory responses have defined the neuronal sites of the corresponding morning (M) and evening (E) oscillators. However, the natural environment provides much richer cycling environmental stimuli than the laboratory, so we sought to examine fly locomotor rhythms in the wild. Here we show that several key laboratory-based assumptions about circadian behaviour are not supported by natural observations. These include the anticipation of light transitions, the midday 'siesta', the fly's crepuscular activity, its nocturnal behaviour under moonlight, and the dominance of light stimuli over temperature. We also observe a third major locomotor component in addition to M and E, which we term 'A' (afternoon). Furthermore, we show that these natural rhythm phenotypes can be observed in the laboratory by using realistic temperature and light cycle simulations. Our results suggest that a comprehensive re-examination of circadian behaviour and its molecular readouts under simulated natural conditions will provide a more authentic interpretation of the adaptive significance of this important rhythmic phenotype. Such studies should also help to clarify the underlying molecular and neuroanatomical substrates of the clock under natural protocols.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.