Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1972 Sep;69(9):2734–2737. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.9.2734

Circadian Surfaces and the Diversity of Possible Roles of Circadian Organization in Photoperiodic Induction

Colin S Pittendrigh 1
PMCID: PMC427028  PMID: 4506793

Abstract

It is an established fact that circadian rhythmicity is often somehow involved in the physiology of photoperiodic induction. It is shown, however, that there are three possible ways in which such rhythmicity could be involved. For the most part available data are inadequate to discriminate among these three roles, only one of which is covered by “Bünning's Hypothesis.” Emphasis is given to a previously ignored possibility in which circadian organization is involved in photoperiodism“ut not as the clock responsible for the time-measurement. The meaning of circadian surfaces and their bearing on the interpretation of a widely used experimental protocol is developed.

Keywords: theoretical, biological clock, oscillator, resonance effects

Full text

PDF
2734

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aschoff J. Desynchronization and resynchronization of human circadian rhythms. Aerosp Med. 1969 Aug;40(8):844–849. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Pittendrigh C. S. Circadian rhythms, space research and manned space flight. Life Sci Space Res. 1967;5:122–134. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Pittendrigh C. S., Eichhorn J. H., Minis D. H., Bruce V. G. Circadian systems, VI. Photoperiodic time measurement in Pectinophora gossypiella. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1970 Jul;66(3):758–764. doi: 10.1073/pnas.66.3.758. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Pittendrigh C. S., Minis D. H. Circadian systems: longevity as a function of circadian resonance in Drosophila melanogaster. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Jun;69(6):1537–1539. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.6.1537. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Takimoto A., Hamner K. C. Effect of Temperature and Preconditioning on Photoperiodic Response of Pharbitis nil. Plant Physiol. 1964 Nov;39(6):1024–1030. doi: 10.1104/pp.39.6.1024. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES