Illuminating the circadian clock in monarch butterfly migration

Science

Volumn 300, Issue 5623, 2003, Pages 1303-1305

  Froy, Oren ^b   Gotter, Anthony L ^a   Casselman, Amy L ^b   Reppert, Steven M ^b  

^a CHILDREN S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BRAIN; CLOCKS; LIGHT SOURCES; SUN; TIME AND MOTION STUDY;

MIGRATORY BUTTERFLIES;

BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH;

COMPLEMENTARY DNA;

CIRCADIAN RHYTHM; LIGHT; MIGRATION; NAVIGATION;

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR; ARTICLE; BUTTERFLY; CIRCADIAN RHYTHM; CONTROLLED STUDY; FLIGHT; LIGHT EXPOSURE; MEXICO; MIGRATION; NONHUMAN; NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCE; POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SUN; TIME; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION;

ANIMAL MIGRATION; ANIMALS; BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS; BUTTERFLIES; CIRCADIAN RHYTHM; CLONING, MOLECULAR; DARKNESS; FLIGHT, ANIMAL; LIGHT; NUCLEAR PROTEINS; SOLAR SYSTEM; ULTRAVIOLET RAYS;

ANIMALIA; DANAUS PLEXIPPUS; PAPILIONOIDEA;

EID: 0038813643     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.1084874     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. L. P. Brower, J. Exp. Biol. 199, 93 (1996).
2. S. M. Perez, O. R. Taylor, R. Jander Nature 387, 29 (1997).
3. H. Mouritsen, B. J. Frost, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 10162 (2001).
4. Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online.
5. D. S. Saunders, Insect Clocks (Pergamon, New York, 1982).
6. F. Urquhart, The Monarch Butterfly (Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada, 1960).
7. O. Froy, A. L. Gotter, A. L. Casselman, S. M. Reppert, data not shown.
8. S. M. W. Young, S. A. Kay, Nature Rev. Genet. 2, 702 (2001).
9. I. Sauman, S. M. Reppert, Neuron 17, 889 (1996).
10. Outdoor experiments were performed under sunny conditions in Worcester, MA (latitude 42°16′N, longitude 71°49′W) in an outdoor arena between 0900 to 1300 hours EST from 21 September through 21 October 2002.
11. The Sun's azimuth varied from 16° to 22° per hour during the time of day of study, which would result in a 6-hour shift of between 96° and 132°.
12. The azimuth of the Sun during the constant-light study was between 136° and 160°.
13. T. Labhart, E. P. Meyer, Microscop. Res. Technol. 47, 368 (1999).
14. The UV-interference filter was a long-wavelength pass filter with a photopic luminous transmission of 87% (E400 from Gentex, Carbondale, PA). Transmission values were as follows: 5% ≥ 394 nm, 50% = 398 ± 6 nm, and 80% ≤ 415 nm.
15. We found no significant difference in flight orientations computed from the first 5 min of continuous flight as compared with those from 10- to 20-min flight records.
16. Based on studies in other navigating insects (13, 18), it is likely that the polarization pattern of skylight is involved in monarch navigation. In fact, the dorsal rim of the monarch butterfly eye contains some ommatidia with orthogonal microvilli (19), an anatomical hallmark of polarized skylight detection (13).
17. Based on studies in Drosophila, the major monarch circadian photoreceptor is likely to be a blue lightsensing cryptochrome (20), which has been cloned (21).
18. R. Wehner, J. Exp. Biol. 204, 2589 (2001).
19. R. H. White, S. M. Reppert, unpublished data.
20. P. Emery, R. Stanewsky, C. Helfrich-Foerster, M. Emery-Le, J. C. Hall, M. Rosbash, Neuron 26, 493 (2000).
21. O. Froy, S. M. Reppert, unpublished data.
22. We thank B. J. Frost for instructions in constructing the flight simulators and for helpful discussions, A. Allard for building the simulators, F. Gagnon for sharing his expertise, D. R. Weaver and F. C. Dyer for suggestions, and A. Chavda and K. Misztal for technical assistance.