Titel
Molecular circadian rhythms are robust in marine annelids lacking rhythmic behavior
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Abstract
The circadian clock controls behavior and metabolism in various organisms. However, the exact timing and strength of rhythmic phenotypes can vary significantly between individuals of the same species. This is highly relevant for rhythmically complex marine environments where organismal rhythmic diversity likely permits the occupation of different microenvironments. When investigating circadian locomotor behavior of Platynereis dumerilii, a model system for marine molecular chronobiology, we found strain-specific, high variability between individual worms. The individual patterns were maintained for several weeks. A diel head transcriptome comparison of behaviorally rhythmic versus arrhythmic wild-type worms showed that 24-h cycling of core circadian clock transcripts is identical between both behavioral phenotypes. While behaviorally arrhythmic worms showed a similar total number of cycling transcripts compared to their behaviorally rhythmic counterparts, the annotation categories of their transcripts, however, differed substantially. Consistent with their locomotor phenotype, behaviorally rhythmic worms exhibit an enrichment of cycling transcripts related to neuronal/behavioral processes. In contrast, behaviorally arrhythmic worms showed significantly increased diel cycling for metabolism- and physiology-related transcripts. The prominent role of the neuropeptide pigment-dispersing factor (PDF) in Drosophila circadian behavior prompted us to test for a possible functional involvement of Platynereis pdf. Differing from its role in Drosophila, loss of pdf impacts overall activity levels but shows only indirect effects on rhythmicity. Our results show that individuals arrhythmic in a given process can show increased rhythmicity in others. Across the Platynereis population, rhythmic phenotypes exist as a continuum, with no distinct “boundaries” between rhythmicity and arrhythmicity. We suggest that such diel rhythm breadth is an important biodiversity resource enabling the species to quickly adapt to heterogeneous or changing marine environments. In times of massive sequencing, our work also emphasizes the importance of time series and functional tests.
Stichwort
Animal behaviorCircadian rhythmsBiological locomotionCircadian oscillatorsPhenotypesTranscriptome analysisCollective animal behaviorChronobiology
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2068228
Erschienen in
Titel
PLOS Biology
Band
22
Ausgabe
4
ISSN
1545-7885
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Publication
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Fördergeber
Europäische Union (alle Programme) — 337011
Europäische Union (alle Programme) — 819952
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Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2024 Häfker et al
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