Distribution of PERIOD-immunoreactive neurons and temporal change of the immunoreactivity under long-day and short-day conditions in the larval brain of the flesh fly Sarcophaga similis

ABSTRACT

The flesh fly Sarcophaga similis show a clear photoperiodic response; they develop into adults under long days, whereas they arrest their development at the pupal stage under short days. Although the involvement of a circadian clock in photoperiodic time measurement is suggested in this species, the anatomical location of the clock neurons responsible for the time measurement has been unknown. We detected two PERIOD-immunoreactive cell clusters in the larval brain; one cluster was located at the dorsoanterior region and the other at the medial region. We further investigated their temporal changes in PERIOD-immunoreactivity and compared their patterns under different photoperiods.

KEYWORDS:

• Circadian clock neuron
• diapause
• external coincidence model
• insect
• PERIOD
• photoperiod
• photoperiodism
• Sarcophaga similis

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22770069 and 16K08101 to SGG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Supplemental data

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22770069 and 16K08101 to SGG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.