Dataset Information

The influence of light on temperature preference in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Ambient light affects multiple physiological functions and behaviors, such as circadian rhythms, sleep-wake activities, and development, from flies to mammals. Mammals exhibit a higher body temperature when exposed to acute light compared to when they are exposed to the dark, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. The body temperature of small ectotherms, such as Drosophila, relies on the temperature of their surrounding environment, and these animals exhibit a robust temperature preference behavior. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila prefer a ?1° higher temperature when exposed to acute light rather than the dark. This acute light response, light-dependent temperature preference (LDTP), was observed regardless of the time of day, suggesting that LDTP is regulated separately from the circadian clock. However, screening of eye and circadian clock mutants suggests that the circadian clock neurons posterior dorsal neurons 1 (DN1(p)s) and Pigment-Dispersing Factor Receptor (PDFR) play a role in LDTP. To further investigate the role of DN1(p)s in LDTP, PDFR in DN1(p)s was knocked down, resulting in an abnormal LDTP. The phenotype of the pdfr mutant was rescued sufficiently by expressing PDFR in DN1(p)s, indicating that PDFR in DN1(p)s is responsible for LDTP. These results suggest that light positively influences temperature preference via the circadian clock neurons, DN1(p)s, which may result from the integration of light and temperature information. Given that both Drosophila and mammals respond to acute light by increasing their body temperature, the effect of acute light on temperature regulation may be conserved evolutionarily between flies and humans.

SUBMITTER: Head LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4406824 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The influence of light on temperature preference in Drosophila.

Head Lauren M LM Tang Xin X Hayley Sean E SE Goda Tadahiro T Umezaki Yujiro Y Chang Elaine C EC Leslie Jennifer R JR Fujiwara Mana M Garrity Paul A PA Hamada Fumika N FN

Current biology : CB 20150409 8

Ambient light affects multiple physiological functions and behaviors, such as circadian rhythms, sleep-wake activities, and development, from flies to mammals. Mammals exhibit a higher body temperature when exposed to acute light compared to when they are exposed to the dark, but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. The body temperature of small ectotherms, such as Drosophila, relies on the temperature of their surrounding environment, and these animals exhibit a robust temperature pre ...[more]

PMID: 25866391

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Project description:Environmental adaptation and species divergence often involve suites of co-evolving traits. Pigmentation in insects presents a variable, adaptive, and well-characterized class of phenotypes for which correlations with multiple other traits have been demonstrated. In Drosophila, the pigmentation genes ebony and tan have pleiotropic effects on flies' response to light, creating the potential for correlated evolution of pigmentation and vision. Here, we investigate differences in light preference within and between two sister species, Drosophila americana and D. novamexicana, which differ in pigmentation in part because of evolution at ebony and tan and occupy environments that differ in many variables including solar radiation. We hypothesized that lighter pigmentation would be correlated with a greater preference for environmental light and tested this hypothesis using a habitat choice experiment. In a first set of experiments, using males of D. novamexicana line N14 and D. americana line A00, the light-bodied D. novamexicana was found slightly but significantly more often than D. americana in the light habitat. A second experiment, which included additional lines and females as well as males, failed to find any significant difference between D. novamexicana-N14 and D. americana-A00. Additionally, the other dark line of D. americana (A04) was found in the light habitat more often than the light-bodied D. novamexicana-N14, in contrast to our predictions. However, the lightest line of D. americana, A01, was found substantially and significantly more often in the light habitat than the two darker lines of D. americana, thus providing partial support for our hypothesis. Finally, across all four lines, females were found more often in the light habitat than their more darkly pigmented male counterparts. Additional replication is needed to corroborate these findings and evaluate conflicting results, with the consistent effect of sex within and between species providing an especially intriguing avenue for further research.

Dataset Information

The influence of light on temperature preference in Drosophila.

Publications

The influence of light on temperature preference in Drosophila.

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