Photoperiodic and clock regulation of the vitamin A pathway in the brain mediates seasonal responsiveness in the monarch butterfly.

ABSTRACT: Seasonal adaptation to changes in light:dark regimes (i.e., photoperiod) allows organisms living at temperate latitudes to anticipate environmental changes. In nearly all animals studied so far, the circadian system has been implicated in measurement and response to the photoperiod. In insects, genetic evidence further supports the involvement of several clock genes in photoperiodic responses. Yet, the key molecular pathways linking clock genes or the circadian clock to insect photoperiodic responses remain largely unknown. Here, we show that inactivating the clock in the North American monarch butterfly using loss-of-function mutants for the circadian activators CLOCK and BMAL1 and the circadian repressor CRYPTOCHROME 2 abolishes photoperiodic responses in reproductive output. Transcripto

SUBMITTER: Iiams SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6911188 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature