SFB 1047:  Insect Timing: Mechanisms, Plasticity and Interactions

• Subject Area: Biology ; Medicine
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 208233609

Timing is crucial for all living systems. The long-term goal of this CRC is to understand the ultimate benefits of timing at various temporal scales and to unravel the proximate mechanisms of adaptive timing. We have successfully established a lively research platform integrating different biological disciplines ranging from molecular biology, physiology, and neuroethology to behavioural, population, community and evolutionary ecology. To understand daily timing, we analysed the molecular and neuronal functioning of the circadian clock in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster, its synchronisation to the 24 h day and started to unravel its function in other insects including social ones. We found promising candidate metabolites that oscillate in a daily manner and appear important for longevity and reproductive fitness. At the level of long-term timing, we found important candidate regulators for transition timing from the neurohormonal control of eclosion in Drosophila to timing of adult behavioural transitions in social insects. We investigated neuronal plasticity underlying seasonal calibration of sun-compass navigation and the nature of time-specific memories. The third project area integrated behavioural, ecological and evolutionary processes to understand the fitness costs and benefits of timing for individuals, colonies, and populations of interacting species. We analysed the importance of abiotic and biotic cues in combination with internal attributes like sex or body size for the timing of key life history stages. This revealed significant fitness costs of mismatches in seasonal timing. Finally, we used theory-driven evolutionary models to explain empirical observations.In the coming phase we will focus on the plasticity of the circadian clock, try to understand how it adapts to different environmental conditions (e.g. photoperiod), how central and peripheral metabolic clocks interact and how the time information is integrated in higher brain centres. At the level of long-term timing we will focus on timing of behavioural transitions aiming at identifying internal and external factors controlling the timing of long-term changes in behaviour and individual life histories. This includes the ontogeny and function of time-memory processes enhancing foraging success in social and solitary insects. At the level of fitness consequences, we will analyse the impact of photoperiod, temperature and resources as drivers of seasonal timing and the fitness consequences of mismatches in timing for mutualistic and antagonistic biotic interactions. Ecological studies will be linked to the functioning of endogenous clocks, to physiological and behavioural mechanisms of time-place learning, transition timing, and to evolutionary models on fitness benefits of accurate timing and strategies of organisms to cope with the unpredictability of the external environment.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• International Connection: Switzerland

Completed projects

• A01 - The circadian clock network of selected insect (Project Head Förster, Charlotte )
• A02 - Role of photoreceptors in synchronising Drosophila's clock to natural conditions (Project Heads Förster, Charlotte ;  Senthilan, Pingkalai )
• A03 - Optophysiological analysis of the clock network of D. melanogaster: Manipulating neuronal excitability and cAMP levels of individual clock neurons (Project Heads Nagel, Georg ;  Rieger, Dirk )
• A04 - Functional impact of clock genes on circadian timing of metabolism: a metabolomics approach (Project Heads Fekete, Agnes ;  Müller, Martin J. )
• A05 - Circadian plasticity at synapses of Drosophila melanogaster (Project Heads Kittel, Robert J. ;  Langenhan, Tobias )
• A06 - Cooperative and distinct functions of the protein kinases CK2 and RSK in regulation of the circadian clock and synaptic plasticity of Drosophila (Project Head Raabe, Thomas )
• A07 - Developmental timing mechanisms during the formation of the compound eye in the honeybee worker, queen and drone (Project Head Spaethe, Johannes )
• B01 - The coordination of growth and developmental timing (Project Head Gallant, Peter )
• B02 - Timing of peptide-orchestrated eclosion behaviour in the fruit fly Drosophila (Project Head Wegener, Christian )
• B04 - In search of time-specific memories in Drosophila (Project Head Heisenberg, Martin )
• B05 - Timing of behavioural transitions and sensory preferences in Camponotus ants (Project Head Groh-Baumann, Claudia )
• B06 - Neuronal basis of orientation in time and space in Cataglyphis ants (Project Heads Rössler, Wolfgang ;  Wehner, Rüdiger )
• C01 - Timing decisions in ant colonies: information management, social synchronization, and the determinants of task-related circadian patterns (Project Head Roces, Flavio )
• C02 - Timing of colony phenology and foraging activity in honeybees (Project Heads Härtel, Stephan ;  Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf )
• C03 - Timing and phenology shifts in interacting plant - herbivore - predator systems (Project Head Krauss, Jochen )
• C04 - Timing in plant-pollinator interactions (Project Head Holzschuh, Andrea )
• C05 - The impact of Drosophila's endogenous clock on fitness: Influence of light (day length), temperature and nutrition (Project Head Rieger, Dirk )
• C06 - The evolutionary value of timing and timing precision in insect phenology (Project Heads Hovestadt, Thomas ;  Poethke, Hans-Joachim )
• Z - Central Administration and project coordination of the CRC (Project Head Förster, Charlotte )

• Applicant Institution: Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Charlotte Förster