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Keeping time without a spine: what can the insect clock teach us about seasonal adaptation?

David L. Denlinger, Daniel A. Hahn, Christine Merlin, Christina M. Holzapfel, William E. Bradshaw
Published 9 October 2017.DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0257
David L. Denlinger
Departments of Entomology and Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
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  • For correspondence: denlinger.1@osu.edu
Daniel A. Hahn
Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
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Christine Merlin
Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
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Christina M. Holzapfel
Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
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William E. Bradshaw
Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
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Abstract

Seasonal change in daylength (photoperiod) is widely used by insects to regulate temporal patterns of development and behaviour, including the timing of diapause (dormancy) and migration. Flexibility of the photoperiodic response is critical for rapid shifts to new hosts, survival in the face of global climate change and to reproductive isolation. At the same time, the daily circadian clock is also essential for development, diapause and multiple behaviours, including correct flight orientation during long-distance migration. Although studied for decades, how these two critical biological timing mechanisms are integrated is poorly understood, in part because the core circadian clock genes are all transcription factors or regulators that are able to exert multiple effects throughout the genome. In this chapter, we discuss clocks in the wild from the perspective of diverse insect groups across eco-geographic contexts from the Antarctic to the tropical regions of Earth. Application of the expanding tool box of molecular techniques will lead us to distinguish universal from unique mechanisms underlying the evolution of circadian and photoperiodic timing, and their interaction across taxonomic and ecological contexts represented by insects.

This article is part of the themed issue ‘Wild clocks: integrating chronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals’.

Footnotes

  • One contribution of 12 to a theme issue ‘Wild clocks: integrating chronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals’.

  • Accepted March 4, 2017.
  • © 2017 The Author(s)
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19 November 2017
Volume 372, issue 1734
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: 372 (1734)
  • Table of Contents
Theme issue ‘Wild clocks: integrating chronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals’ compiled and edited by William J. Schwartz, Barbara Helm and Menno P. Gerkema

Keywords

insect photoperiodism
diapause
migration
clock genes
seasonal adaptations
climate change
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Keeping time without a spine: what can the insect clock teach us about seasonal adaptation?
David L. Denlinger, Daniel A. Hahn, Christine Merlin, Christina M. Holzapfel, William E. Bradshaw
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2017 372 20160257; DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0257. Published 9 October 2017
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Review article:

Keeping time without a spine: what can the insect clock teach us about seasonal adaptation?

David L. Denlinger, Daniel A. Hahn, Christine Merlin, Christina M. Holzapfel, William E. Bradshaw
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2017 372 20160257; DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0257. Published 9 October 2017

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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Clocks and the diapause response
    • 3. When photoperiodic clocks are not needed
    • 4. Role of circadian clocks and clock genes in insect migration
    • 5. Shifts in diapause timing facilitate reproductive isolation
    • 6. Photoperiodic adaptation as an evolutionary response to climate change
    • 7. Concluding remarks
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