Even though the rhythm in adult emergence and rhythm in locomotor activity are two different rhythmic phenomena that occur at distinct life-stages of the fly life cycle, previous studies have hinted at similarities in certain aspects of the organisation of the circadian clock driving these two rhythms. For instance, the period gene plays an important regulatory role in both rhythms. In an earlier study, we have shown that selection on timing of adult emergence behaviour in populations of Drosophila melanogaster leads to the co-evolution of temperature sensitivity of circadian clocks driving eclosion. In this study, we were interested in asking if temperature sensitivity of the locomotor activity rhythm has evolved in our populations with divergent timing of adult emergence rhythm, with the goal of understanding the extent of similarity (or lack of it) in circadian organisation between the two rhythms. We found that in response to simulated jetlag with temperature cycles, late chronotypes (populations selected for predominant emergence during dusk) indeed re-entrain faster than early chronotypes (populations selected for predominant emergence during dawn) to 6-h phase-delays, thereby indicating enhanced sensitivity of the activity/rest clock to temperature cues in these stocks (entrainment is the synchronisation of internal rhythms to cyclic environmental time-cues). Additionally, we found that late chronotypes show higher plasticity of phases across regimes, day-to-day stability in phases and amplitude of entrainment, all indicative of enhanced temperature sensitive activity/rest rhythms. Our results highlight remarkably similar organisation principles between emergence and activity/rest rhythms.

Data were collected using the Drosophila Activity Monitor system (DAM, Trikinetics, Waltham, MA USA) under a wide variety of light and temperature regimes. Scanned monitor files have been uploaded here. Please contact either Lakshman Abhilash or Vasu Sheeba for more details.

Description of data sets

Three sets of data files from three sets of experiments are deposited here.  The first set contains scanned DAM monitor files from 6-h phase advanced and 6-h phase delayed jetlag for all four replicates of early, control and late populations (total of 12 files per regime) (Figure 1).  The second set contains scanned DAM monitor files for all 12 populations under and post entrainment to three temperature cycle regimes (three different thermoperiods) (Figures 2, 3 and 6).  The third set has scanned DAM monitor files for all 12 populations under and post entrainment to light/dark cycles under different ambient temperatures (Figures 4 and 5).

Key for file names

GE1 - early block-1

GE2 - early block-2

GE3 - early block-3

GE4 - early block-4

GC1 - control block-1

GC2 - control block-2

GC3 - control block-3

GC4 - control block-4

GL1 - late block-1

GL2 - late block-2

GL3 - late block-3

GL4 - late block-4