The Adaptive Value of Circadian Clocks

Woelfle, Mark A.; Ouyang, Yan; Phanvijhitsiri, Kittiporn; Johnson, Carl Hirschie

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2004.08.023

Cited by 345 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…These conclusions are fully in line with the selection experiments in cyanobacteria [1,2], but do not explain why arctic ground squirrels maintain circadian organization during the arctic summer. One possible explanation may reside in the strong circannual organization of obligate seasonal hibernation in ground squirrels.…”

Section: Adjustment To Changing Day Length As a Selection Force For Tsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…In itself, this observation suggests that during the early development of life on Earth, rhythms with periods close to the light -dark cycle already generated an evolutionary advantage. The hypothesis of optimization of circadian period was tested in competition experiments under light -dark cycles of different periods with several S. elongatus mutants, each with different intrinsic circadian periods [1,2]. In these experiments, the reproductive success has been quantified of the various strains under different experimental circumstances.…”

Section: Empirical Evidence For a Selective Advantage Of Circadian Rhmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms: early emergence and adaptation to photoperiod

Hut

Beersma

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

183

193

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Virtually all species have developed cellular oscillations and mechanisms that synchronize these cellular oscillations to environmental cycles. Such environmental cycles in biotic (e.g. food availability and predation risk) or abiotic (e.g. temperature and light) factors may occur on a daily, annual or tidal time scale. Internal timing mechanisms may facilitate behavioural or physiological adaptation to such changes in environmental conditions. These timing mechanisms commonly involve an internal molecular oscillator (a 'clock') that is synchronized ('entrained') to the environmental cycle by receptor mechanisms responding to relevant environmental signals ('Zeitgeber', i.e. German for time-giver). To understand the evolution of such timing mechanisms, we have to understand the mechanisms leading to selective advantage. Although major advances have been made in our understanding of the physiological and molecular mechanisms driving internal cycles (proximate questions), studies identifying mechanisms of natural selection on clock systems (ultimate questions) are rather limited. Here, we discuss the selective advantage of a circadian system and how its adaptation to day length variation may have a functional role in optimizing seasonal timing. We discuss various cases where selective advantages of circadian timing mechanisms have been shown and cases where temporarily loss of circadian timing may cause selective advantage. We suggest an explanation for why a circadian timing system has emerged in primitive life forms like cyanobacteria and we evaluate a possible molecular mechanism that enabled these bacteria to adapt to seasonal variation in day length. We further discuss how the role of the circadian system in photoperiodic time measurement may explain differential selection pressures on circadian period when species are exposed to changing climatic conditions (e.g. global warming) or when they expand their geographical range to different latitudes or altitudes.

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Section: Adjustment To Changing Day Length As a Selection Force For Tsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Empirical Evidence For a Selective Advantage Of Circadian Rhmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms: early emergence and adaptation to photoperiod

Hut

Beersma

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

183

193

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“…Could the principles of mutual synchronization of conspecifics be extended to broader ecological contexts such as interactions between predator and prey [106][107][108] or social thermoregulation during hibernation (as in groups of torpid alpine marmots (Marmota marmota) that exhibit synchronized euthermic arousal bouts [109])? Finally, it is noteworthy that studies on how circadian clocks contribute to biological fitness suggest that they do under conditions of synchrony, but not when they are in an environment devoid of time cues [110,111]. Indeed, when reproductive success is factored into this discussion, it seems worth promoting the hypothesis that social synchrony mediated by circadian clocks contributes to fitness in the natural world.…”

Section: Codamentioning

confidence: 99%

Socially synchronized circadian oscillators

et al. 2013

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Daily rhythms of physiology and behaviour are governed by an endogenous timekeeping mechanism (a circadian 'clock'). The alternation of environmental light and darkness synchronizes (entrains) these rhythms to the natural day-night cycle, and underlying mechanisms have been investigated using singly housed animals in the laboratory. But, most species ordinarily would not live out their lives in such seclusion; in their natural habitats, they interact with other individuals, and some live in colonies with highly developed social structures requiring temporal synchronization. Social cues may thus be critical to the adaptive function of the circadian system, but elucidating their role and the responsible mechanisms has proven elusive. Here, we highlight three model systems that are now being applied to understanding the biology of socially synchronized circadian oscillators: the fruitfly, with its powerful array of molecular genetic tools; the honeybee, with its complex natural society and clear division of labour; and, at a different level of biological organization, the rodent suprachiasmatic nucleus, site of the brain's circadian clock, with its network of mutually coupled single-cell oscillators. Analyses at the 'group' level of circadian organization will likely generate a more complex, but ultimately more comprehensive, view of clocks and rhythms and their contribution to fitness in nature.

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“…Selection experiments have been done in the laboratory with strains of cyanobacteria carrying mutations that effected their circadian period. Strains with a circadian period similar to the applied external light -dark cycle outcompeted strains with a different circadian period; thus, showing selective advantage for an endogenous circadian period that matches the external light/dark cycle [85,86].…”

Section: Case Study 3 Measuring Fitness Consequences Of Circadian Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods in field chronobiology

Dominoni

Åkesson

Klaassen

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Chronobiological research has seen a continuous development of novel approaches and techniques to measure rhythmicity at different levels of biological organization from locomotor activity (e.g. migratory restlessness) to physiology (e.g. temperature and hormone rhythms, and relatively recently also in genes, proteins and metabolites). However, the methodological advancements in this field have been mostly and sometimes exclusively used only in indoor laboratory settings. In parallel, there has been an unprecedented and rapid improvement in our ability to track animals and their behaviour in the wild. However, while the spatial analysis of tracking data is widespread, its temporal aspect is largely unexplored. Here, we review the tools that are available or have potential to record rhythms in the wild animals with emphasis on currently overlooked approaches and monitoring systems. We then demonstrate, in three question-driven case studies, how the integration of traditional and newer approaches can help answer novel chronobiological questions in free-living animals. Finally, we highlight unresolved issues in field chronobiology that may benefit from technological development in the future. As most of the studies in the field are descriptive, the future challenge lies in applying the diverse technologies to experimental set-ups in the wild.

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The Adaptive Value of Circadian Clocks

Abstract: Sciences researchers have proposed that circadian clocks may additionally provide an "intrinsic" adaptive value [6, 7].

Cited by 345 publications

References 16 publications

Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms: early emergence and adaptation to photoperiod

Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms: early emergence and adaptation to photoperiod

Socially synchronized circadian oscillators

Methods in field chronobiology

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