Project description:Annual cycles in daylength provide an initial predictive environmental cue that plants and animals use to time seasonal biology. Seasonal changes in photoperiodic information acts to entrain endogenous programs in physiology to optimize an animal’s fitness. Attempts to identify the neural and molecular substrates of photoperiodic time measurement in birds have, to date, focussed on blunt changes in light exposure during a restricted period of photoinducibility. The objectives of these studies were first to characterise a molecular seasonal clock in Japanese quail and second, to identify the key transcripts involved in endogenously generated interval timing that underlies photosensitivity in birds. We hypothesized that the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) provides the neuroendocrine control of photoperiod-induced changes in reproductive physiology, and that the pars distalis of the pituitary gland contains an endogenous internal timer for the short photoperiod dependent development of reproductive photosensitivity. Here we report distinct seasonal waveforms of transcript expression in the MBH, and pituitary gland and discovered the patterns were not synchronized across tissues. Follicle-stimulating hormone-β (FSHβ) expression increased during the simulated spring equinox, prior to photoinduced increases in prolactin, thyrotropin-stimulating hormone-β and testicular growth. Diurnal analyses of transcript expression showed sustained elevated levels of FSHβ under conditions of the spring equinox, compared to autumnal equinox, short (<12L) and long (>12L) photoperiods. FSHβ expression increased in quail held in non-stimulatory short photoperiod, indicative of the initiation of an endogenously programmed interval timer. These data identify that FSHβ establishes a state of photosensitivity for the external coincidence timing of seasonal physiology. The independent regulation of FSHβ expression provides an alternative pathway through which other supplementary environmental cues, such as temperature, can fine tune seasonal reproductive maturation and involution.

Project description:Aphid adaptation to harsh winter conditions is illustrated by an alternation of their reproductive mode. Aphids detect photoperiod shortening by sensing the length of the night and switch from viviparous parthenogenesis in spring and summer, to oviparous sexual reproduction in autumn. The photoperiodic signal is transduced from the head to the reproductive tract to change the fate of the future oocytes from mitotic diploid embryogenesis to haploid formation of gametes. Because of viviparous parthenogenesis, the whole process takes place in three consecutive generations. To understand the molecular basis of the switch in the reproductive mode, a transcriptomic approach was used to detect significantly regulated transcripts in the heads of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. The transcriptomic profiles of the heads of the first generation were slightly affected by photoperiod shortening. This suggests that trans-generation signaling does not occur between the grand-mothers and the viviparous embryos they contain. By analogy, many of the genes regulated in the heads of the second generation are implicated in visual functions, photoreception and cuticle structure. The modification of the cuticle could decrease the storage of N-Î²-alanyldopamine and provoke an increase in free dopamine concentration. Based in results in Drosophila, modification of the insulin pathway could cause a decrease of juvenile hormones in short-day reared aphids. Biological material for microarray experiments was prepared under two dayly photoperiodic regimes both at constant temperature of 18Â°C: i) âShort Nightâ (SN) at 16h of light and ii) âLong Nightâ (LN) at 12h of light to induce the production of sexual morphs. To initiate the experiment, two groups of 105 L3 larvae were placed either under SN or LN condition. This corresponds to generation G0. At the middle of the photophase, 25 individual were frozen when they had reached both the L4 and the wingless adult (WA) stages, in the two photoperiod conditions. The 55 remaining WA individuals (still divided in two groups) were left on 55 plants to lay their offspring: one larva of the 1st stage (L1) was kept per WA. This larva was selected among the 20 first born larvae. This is the generation G1. At the middle of the photophase, 25 individual were frozen when they had reached both the L2 and the L4 stages, in the two photoperiodic conditions. Thus, 25 individuals from 4 different stages (L4-G0, WA-G0, L2-G1 and L4-G1) were collected in the two photoperiod conditions with 3 biological replicates, forming the 24 samples used for microarray experiments. RNAs from heads of aphids from the two photoperiodic conditions were hybridized one against the other for each stage with a dye-swap.The experimental design is thus 24 arrays which corresponds to the described samples of that series.

Project description:Gene expression of two populations was compared at a daylength intermediate to the two population critical photoperiods after 0 and 6 days. Genes with interaction terms are candidates for involvement in long-day response. The mosquito Wyeomyia smithii overwinters in a larval diapause that is initiated, maintained and terminated by day length (photoperiod). We use a forward genetic approach to investigate covert transcriptional events involved in the termination of diapause following exposure to long-days. We incorporate a novel approach that compares two populations (DB - southern, DR - northern) that differentially respond to a single day length. After six long days, 50% of individuals of population DB have terminated diapause and are irrevocably committed to development, though no phenotyping differences are observed. We can compare gene expression between these two populations after six long days and zero long days. The zero long day treatment will control for evolved differences between the populations and the 6 long day treatment allows for the identification of genes that are differentially expressed due to different responses to a single daylength. We identify 30 transcripts associated with differential response to day length. All of the corresponding genes with a previously annotated function are consistent with a role in the termination of diapause, with downstream developmental events, or with the transition from potentially oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich environments; none appears to be specifically part of the photoperiodic switch mechanism itself. However, among 10 unannotated genes, a gene homologous to Drosophila melanogaster CG13043 emerges from three separate forward genetic screens as a leading candidate for a gene contributing to the photoperiodic timing mechanism itself (photoperiodic switch). We name this gene photoperiodic response gene 1 (prg1). Prg1 is up-regulated under long-day response conditions, is located under a QTL for critical photoperiod and is associated with critical photoperiod after 25 generations of recombination from a cross between extreme phenotypes. Three independent forward genetic approaches identify prg1 as a gene either involved in the photoperiodic switch mechanism or very tightly linked to a gene that is. We conclude that continued forward genetic approaches will be central to understanding not only the molecular basis of photoperiodism and diapause, but also the evolutionary potential of temperate and polar animal populations when confronted with rapid climate change. 4 treatments, (Population DR, Day 0; Population DB, Day 0; Population DR, Day 6, Population DB, Day6), one dye swap (treatment Cy3 or Cy5, each replicated three times for a total of 24 arrays

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Differential expression of microRNA associated with photoperiod in Drosophila

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