Possible involvement of temperature-entrainable timing system in arrhythmic mutant flies in Drosophila melanogaster

In Drosophila melanogaster, it is known that the circadian clock consists of an autoregulatory feedback loop, which includes so-called clock genes, such as per, tim, dClk and cyc and produces periodical expression of per. It is recently suggested, however, that the circadian oscillation without the rhythmical expression of per is involved in the regulation of circadian locomotor rhythms. In the present study, we examined the existence and the property of the possible per-less oscillation using arrhythmic clock mutant flies carrying per$^{01}$, tim$^{01}$, dClk$^{Jrk}$ or cyc$^{01}$. When temperature cycles consisting of 25$^{\circ}$Ｃ and 30$^{\circ}$Ｃ with varying periods (T = 8~32 hr) were given, they showed rhythms synchronizing with the given cycle under constant darkness (DD). per$^{01}$ and tim$^{01}$ flies always showed a peak around 7 hr after the onset of thermophase irrespective of Ts of temperature cycles, while dClk$^{Jrk}$ and cyc$^{01}$ flies did not. In addition, several days were necessary to establish a clear temperature entrainment in per$^{01}$ and tim$^{01}$ flies, when they were transferred from a constant temperature to a temperature cycle under DD. These results suggest that per$^{01}$ and tim$^{01}$ flies have a temperature-entrainable weak oscillatory mechanism. The fact that dClk$^{Jrk}$ and cyc$^{01}$ flies did not show any sign of the endogenous oscillation suggests that the per-less oscillatory mechanism may require CLK and CYC.