Role of the circadian clock in the statistics of locomotor activity in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: In many animals the circadian rhythm of locomotor activity is controlled by an endogenous circadian clock. Using custom made housing and video tracking software in order to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution, we studied the statistical properties of the locomotor activity of wild type and two clock mutants of Drosophila melanogaster. We show here that the distributions of activity and quiescence bouts for the clock mutants in light-dark conditions (LD) are very different from the distributions obtained when there are no external cues from the environment (DD). In the wild type these distributions are very similar, showing that the clock controls this aspect of behavior in both regimes (LD and DD). Furthermore, the distributions are very similar to those reported for Wistar rats. F

SUBMITTER: Cascallares G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6107170 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature