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Splitting in a circadian activity rhythm: The expression of bilaterally paired oscillators

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Summary

Circadian stridulation rhythms of the male Australian field cricketTeleogryllus commodus (Walker) recorded in continuous light (LL) and constant temperature sometimes split spontaneously or after a pulse of low temperature into two activity components per cycle. Both components exhibited different free-running periods longer than 24 h, referring to separate oscillatory control mechanisms. One of the components disappeared when an optic lobe was removed.

Two activity components per circadian cycle with different periods were also found after the ommatidial nerves between retina and optic lobe had been cut on one side during the last larval instar. In LL, one period was then longer, the other shorter than 24 h; these periods correspond to the freerunning rhythms of intact crickets in LL and constant darkness (DD) (Loher 1972), and indicate that they can be simultaneously expressed in the same cricket. The two underlying pacemakers are only weakly coupled, they jointly or alternatingly influence the overt rhythm causing a spectrum of different patterns. Additional removal of the optic lobe on the intact side eliminated the LL-component (>24 h) while the DD-component (<24 h) continued. Removal of the de-afferented optic lobe had the reverse effect. Each component of the split activity rhythm can therefore be attributed to either side of the brain. The circadian control mechanism of the calling song inT. commodus is interpreted as being composed of two bilaterally organized subunits.

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Abbreviations

DD :

continuous darkness

LD :

light-dark cycle

LL :

continuous light

LTP :

pulse of low temperature

τ :

freerunning period

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Author notes

  1. Gottfried Wiedenmann

    Present address: Arbeitskreis Neurobiologie circadianer Rhythmen, Zoologisches Institut der Universität, Siesmayerstrasse 70, D-6000, Frankfurt am Main, Federal Republic of Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomological Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, 94720, Berkeley, California, USA

    Gottfried Wiedenmann

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  1. Gottfried Wiedenmann
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Dedicated to Professor Erwin Bünning, my “Doktor-Großvater”, on the occasion of his 75th birthday

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Wiedenmann, G. Splitting in a circadian activity rhythm: The expression of bilaterally paired oscillators. J. Comp. Physiol. 150, 51–60 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605287

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00605287

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