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Pulses of darkness shift the phase of a circadian rhythm in an insectivorous bat

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Summary

The circadian rhythm of a tropical insectivorous bat,Taphozous melanopogon, free-runs in dim light and responds to dark breaks of a few hours' duration with ‘advances’ and ‘delays’ as a function of the phase experiencing the “black out”. Similarly phase shifts also follow perturbations by light breaks. The time course and the wave form of the phase response curves obtained from experiments using pulsed light and pulsed darkness are mirror images of each other.

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Abbreviations

L:

light

D:

darkness

L/D:

light/darkness cycles

LL:

continuous light

DD:

continuous darkness

PRC:

phase response curve

τ :

period length

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, Madurai University, 625 021, Madurai, India

    Ramanujam Subbaraj & Maroli K. Chandrashekaran

Authors
  1. Ramanujam Subbaraj
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  2. Maroli K. Chandrashekaran
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Additional information

Dedicated to Professor Colin S. Pittendrigh on the occasion of his 60th birthday

We thank Professor Dr. E. Bünning and Dr. Wolfgang Engelmann for making critical improvements to the manuscript. We also thank our colleagues in the Unit of Animal Behaviour for their ready and cheerful participation in the several stages and processes that led to the writing of this paper. Financial support by the University Grants Commission, Government of India, in the form of a generous grant and generous donations of equipment for work on chronobiology by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, both to M.K.C., are gratefully acknowledged.

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Subbaraj, R., Chandrashekaran, M.K. Pulses of darkness shift the phase of a circadian rhythm in an insectivorous bat. J. Comp. Physiol. 127, 239–243 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01350114

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01350114

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