Significant differences were documented in locomotor activity, sleep duration, and longevity in Drosophila melanogaster exposed to a 4-hour shift in the light/dark cycle.
Under a 4-hour weekday-weekend shift in light exposure, Canton-S flies slept longer on weekdays compared to control flies.
Both strains of flies showed increased development time from eggs to imago and longer lifespans in the experimental condition.
The observed differences in sleep duration and lifespan were beneficial for the experimental flies.
Light-induced shifts in circadian timing do not appear to be harmful to survival or reproductive health in Drosophila melanogaster.
Simplified
PURPOSE: Daytime workers/learners report reduction of sleep duration on weekdays. However, this reduction can be partially compensated by an advance in circadian sleep timing caused by an advance in the phase of the circadian clock. This advance occurs in response to an advance in the 24-h pattern of exposure to light emitted by natural and artificial light sources. It is difficult to separate health impacts of weekday sleep reduction and weekday-weekend shifts in the in human studies. Therefore, an animal model can be used to clarify the impact of these shifts. A limited number of previous studies on insects and rodents have yielded conflicting results. We used amodel to document the effects of weekday-weekend shifts in the dark-light cycle on sleep, development, and survival. Drosophila
METHODS: Locomotor activity and sleep, , rate of imago emergence, and longevity were assessed under two pairs of control and experimental conditions in two generations of flies from twostrains with faster and slower speeds of the aging process, Harwich and Canton-S, respectively. melanogaster
RESULTS: At least in one of these two pairs with the 4-h weekday-weekend shifts in the light/dark regimen as experimental condition, significant differences from the control condition were documented for the levels of locomotor activity and sleep, rate of development from eggs to imago, and longevity. In this experimental condition, two generations of Canton-S but not Harwich flies slept longer on weekdays than the control flies. Moreover, flies of both strains developed longer to imago stage and lived longer than the control flies in this experimental condition. Overall, any of such differences between conditions in lifespan and sleep were beneficial for the experimental flies.
CONCLUSION: It is unlikely that the light-induced 4-h weekday-weekend shifts in circadian timing are detrimental to survival, reproductive health, and sleep in. Drosophila melanogaster
Key numbers
4 hours
Increase in Sleep Duration
Canton-S flies under experimental conditions compared to controls.
17×
Increase in Lifespan
Canton-S flies in experimental conditions compared to controls.
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