Effects of light on circadian pacemaker development. I. The freerunning period.

1. The effects of raising cockroaches, Leucophaea maderae, in non-24 h light cycles on circadian rhythms in adults were examined. The average period (tau) of freerunning rhythms of locomotor activity of animals exposed to LD 11:11 (T22) during post-embryonic development was significantly shorter (tau = 22.8 +/- 0.47 SD, n = 85) than that of animals raised in LD 12:12 (T24) (tau = 23.7 +/- 0.20 h, n = 142), while animals raised in LD 13:13 (T26) had significantly longer periods (tau = 24.3 +/- 0.21 h, n = 65). Animals raised in constant darkness (DD) had a significantly shorter period (tau = 23.5 +/- 0.21 h, n = 13) than siblings raised in constant light (LL) (tau = 24.0 +/- 0.15 h, n = 10). 2. The differences in tau between animals raised in T22 and T24 were found to be stable in DD for at least 7 months and could not be reversed by exposing animals to LD 12:12 or LD 6:18. 3. Animals raised in either T24 or DD and then exposed as adults to T22 exhibited average freerunning periods that were not different from animals not exposed to T22. 4. Measurement of freerunning periods at different temperatures of animals raised in T22, T24, or T26 showed that the temperature compensation of tau was not affected by the developmental light cycle. These results indicate that the lighting conditions during post-embryonic development can permanently alter the freerunning period of the circadian system in the cockroach, but do not affect its temperature compensation.