Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254
Abstract
Mutations at the disconnected ( disco) locus in Drosophila melanogaster cause cultures of this insect to eclose in an essentially arrhythmic manner and also nearly eliminate free-running circadian rhythms of locomotor activity. Yet disco mutants are not totally light- insensitive : Whereas they performed very poorly in tests of certain behavioral responses to visual stimuli, they were able to exhibit "forced" periodic locomotor activity under conditions of light-dark cycling. We discuss these results in the context of (1) the dispensability of this insect's external photoreceptors for entrainment of its circadian pacemaker, and (2) possible disco-induced abnormalities in the connections of extraocular photoreceptors to their targets in the central nervous system and/or abnormalities in the targets themselves—which presum ably include elements of the fly's circadian clock.
Subject
Physiology (medical),Physiology
Cited by
132 articles.
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