title: Unexpected Geographic Variability of the Free Running Period in the Linden Bug Pyrrhocoris apterus.
abstract: Circadian clocks keep organisms in synchrony with external day-night cycles. The free running period (FRP) of the clock, however, is usually only close to-not exactly-24 h. Here, we explored the geographical variation in the FRP of the linden bug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, in 59 field-lines originating from a wide variety of localities representing geographically different environments. We have identified a remarkable range in the FRPs between field-lines, with the fastest clock at ~21 h and the slowest close to 28 h, a range comparable to the collections of clock mutants in model organisms. Similarly, field-lines differed in the percentage of rhythmic individuals, with a minimum of 13.8% and a maximum of 86.8%. Although the FRP correlates with the latitude and perhaps with the altitude of the locality, the actual function of this FRP diversity is currently unclear. With the recent technological progress of massive parallel sequencing and genome editing, we can expect remarkable progress in elucidating the genetic basis of similar geographic variants in P. apterus or in similar emerging model species of chronobiology.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pivarciova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Hanka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vaneckova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Provaznik
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Bulah Chia-Hsiang
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pivarci
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Peckova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bazalova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Stepan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cada
authors.affiliation: National Museum, Praha, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kment
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Department of Animal Physiology, Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kotwica-Rolinska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.|Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dolezel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057906:Circadian Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D005060:Europe; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D020062:Heteroptera / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D032384:Tilia / Q000469:parasitology*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Pyrrhocoris apterus; altitude; circadian clock; diapause; geographic distribution; latitude; locomotor activity; period gene; phylogeography; population rhythm