Circadian temperature adaptations in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

For ectothermic animals such as insects, ambient temperature is a vastly important environmental factor, as it severely affects their life activities. For example, low temperature often causes low activity, and its long-term exposure may result in death. High temperature is a more life-threatening condition for insects, as even a short-term exposure could be lethal. Since ambient temperature changes in a circadian manner, insects have the capability to predict the time of these changes using an internal clock −circadian clock. Since the 1990s, the molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock have been unveiled in some model animals, flies and mice. Particularly, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been a very useful model to investigate molecular and neuronal basis of the clock and has developed excellent genetic tools for manipulating neurons responsible for the clock in the brain. Drosophila researchers, including the authors, have studied the reciprocal relationship between the clock and daily temperature adaptations in Drosophila. In this review, we would like to summarize the progress that has been made in this field.