Circadian rhythms are more resilient to pacemaker neuron disruption in female Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The circadian system regulates the timing of multiple molecular, physiological, metabolic, and behavioral phenomena. In Drosophila, as in other species, most of the research on how the timekeeping system in the brain controls the timing of behavioral outputs has been conducted in males, or sex has not been included as a biological variable. A critical set of circadian pacemaker neurons in Drosophila release the neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), which functions as a key output factor in the network with complex effects on other clock neurons. Lack of Pdf or its receptor, PdfR, results in most flies displaying arrhythmicity in activity-rest cycles under constant conditions. However, our results show that female circadian rhythms are less affected by mutations in both Pdf and PdfR

SUBMITTER: Iyer AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12080924 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature