Principles underlying the complex dynamics of temperature entrainment by a circadian clock

• Published in: iScience Vol. 24; no. 11; p. 103370
• Main Authors: Burt, Philipp, Grabe, Saskia, Madeti, Cornelia, Upadhyay, Abhishek, Merrow, Martha, Roenneberg, Till, Herzel, Hanspeter, Schmal, Christoph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 19.11.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Chronobiology; In silico biology; Plant biology; Systems biology; Plant biology; Chronobiology; Systems biology; In silico biology
• ISSN: 2589-0042; 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103370

Autonomously oscillating circadian clocks resonate with daily environmental (zeitgeber) rhythms to organize physiology around the solar day. Although entrainment properties and mechanisms have been studied widely and in great detail for light-dark cycles, entrainment to daily temperature rhythms remains poorly understood despite that they are potent zeitgebers. Here we investigate the entrainment of the chronobiological model organism Neurospora crassa, subject to thermocycles of different periods and fractions of warm versus cold phases, mimicking seasonal variations. Depending on the properties of these thermocycles, regularly entrained rhythms, period-doubling (frequency demultiplication) but also irregular aperiodic behavior occurs. We demonstrate that the complex nonlinear phenomena of experimentally observed entrainment dynamics can be understood by molecular mathematical modeling. [Display omitted] •Temperature cycles can entrain the fungal model organism Neurospora crassa•We study the circadian surface for 99 combinations of τ, T and thermoperiod•1:1 entrainment, period doubling and other non-linear phenomena are observed•A mathematical model of temperature entrainment explains the observed complexity Chronobiology; Systems biology; In silico biology; Plant biology