Temperature can entrain egg laying rhythm of Drosophila but may not be a stronger zeitgeber than light

Abstract

In Drosophila multiple circadian oscillators and behavioral rhythms are known to exist, yet most previous studies that attempted to understand circadian entrainment have focused on the activity/rest rhythm and to some extent the adult emergence rhythm. Egg laying behavior of Drosophila females also follows circadian rhythmicity and has been seen to deviate substantially from the better characterized rhythms in a few aspects. Here we report the findings of our study aimed at evaluating how circadian egg laying rhythm in fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster entrains to time cues provided by light and temperature. Previous studies have shown that activity/rest rhythm of flies entrains readily to light/dark (LD) and temperature cycles (TC). Our present study revealed that egg laying rhythm of a greater percentage of females entrains to TC compared to LD cycles. Therefore, in the specific context of our study this result can be taken to suggest that egg laying clocks of D. melanogaster entrains to TC more readily than LD cycles. However, when TC were presented along with out-of-phase LD cycles, the rhythm displayed two peaks, one occurring close to lights-off and the other near the onset of low temperature phase, indicating that upon entrainment by TC, LD cycles may be able to exert a greater influence on the phase of the rhythm. These results suggest that temperature and light associatively entrain circadian egg laying clocks of Drosophila.