title: The full moon as a synchronizer of circa-monthly biological rhythms: Chronobiologic perspectives based on multidisciplinary naturalistic research.
abstract: Biological rhythmicity is presumed to be an advantageous genetic adaptation of fitness and survival value resulting from evolution of life forms in an environment that varies predictably-in-time during the 24 h, month, and year. The 24 h light/dark cycle is the prime synchronizer of circadian periodicities, and its modulation over the course of the year, in terms of daytime photoperiod length, is a prime synchronizer of circannual periodicities. Circadian and circannual rhythms have been the major research focus of most scientists. Circa-monthly rhythms triggered or synchronized by the 29.5 day lunar cycle of nighttime light intensity, or specifically the light of the full moon, although explored in waterborne and certain other species, have received far less study, perhaps because of associations with ancient mythology and/or an attitude naturalistic studies are of lesser merit than ones that entail molecular mechanisms. In this editorial, we cite our recent discovery through multidisciplinary naturalistic investigation of a highly integrated circadian, circa-monthly, and circannual time structure, synchronized by the natural ambient nyctohemeral, lunar, and annual light cycles, of the Peruvian apple cactus (C. peruvianus) flowering and reproductive processes that occur in close temporal coordination with like rhythms of the honey bee as its pollinator. This finding led us to explore the preservation of this integrated biological time structure, synchronized and/or triggered by environmental light cues and cycles, in the reproduction of other species, including Homo sapiens, and how the artificial light environment of today in which humans reside may be negatively affecting human reproduction efficiency.
authors.affiliation: a Unité de Chronobiologie , Fondation A de Rothschild , Paris cedex 19 , France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reinberg
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering , The University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas , USA.
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Smolensky
authors.affiliation: a Unité de Chronobiologie , Fondation A de Rothschild , Paris cedex 19 , France.
authors.forename: Yvan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Touitou
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D016081:Moon; D017440:Photoperiod
keywords: Circadian rhythms; circa-monthly rhythms; circannual rhythms; full moon; human beings; light cycles; lunar cycle; marine animals; plants