Akpoghiran Oghenerukevwe, Strich Alexandra K, Koh Kyunghee
Department of Neuroscience, Farber Institute for Neurosciences, and Synaptic Biology Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 22:2024.11.22.624853. doi: 10.1101/2024.11.22.624853.
Circadian rhythms play a crucial role in regulating behavior, physiology, and health. Sexual dimorphism, a widespread phenomenon across species, influences circadian behaviors. Additionally, post-mating physiological changes in females are known to modulate various behaviors, yet their effects on circadian rhythms remain underexplored. Here, using , a powerful model for studying circadian mechanisms, we systematically assessed the impact of sex and mating status on circadian behavior. We measured circadian period length and rhythm strength in virgin and mated males and females, including females mated to males lacking Sex Peptide (SP), a key mediator of post-mating changes. Across four wild-type and control strains, we found that males consistently exhibited shorter circadian periods than females, regardless of mating status, suggesting that circadian period length is a robust sexually dimorphic trait. In contrast, rhythm strength was influenced by the interaction between sex and mating status, with female mating generally reducing rhythm strength in the presence of SP signaling. Notably, genetic background significantly modulated these effects on rhythm strength. Our findings demonstrate that while circadian period length is a stable sex-specific trait, rhythm strength is shaped by a complex interplay between sex, mating status, and genetic background. This study advances our understanding of how sex and mating influence circadian rhythms in and provides a foundation for future research into sexually dimorphic mechanisms underlying human diseases associated with circadian disruptions.
昼夜节律在调节行为、生理和健康方面起着至关重要的作用。性别二态性是一种广泛存在于物种中的现象，会影响昼夜节律行为。此外，已知雌性在交配后的生理变化会调节各种行为，但其对昼夜节律的影响仍未得到充分研究。在这里，我们使用一种研究昼夜节律机制的强大模型，系统地评估了性别和交配状态对昼夜节律行为的影响。我们测量了未交配和已交配的雄性和雌性的昼夜周期长度和节律强度，包括与缺乏性肽（SP）的雄性交配的雌性，性肽是交配后变化的关键调节因子。在四个野生型和对照品系中，我们发现无论交配状态如何，雄性的昼夜周期始终比雌性短，这表明昼夜周期长度是一种稳定的性别二态性特征。相比之下，节律强度受性别和交配状态之间相互作用的影响，在有SP信号的情况下，雌性交配通常会降低节律强度。值得注意的是，遗传背景显著调节了这些对节律强度的影响。我们的研究结果表明，虽然昼夜周期长度是一种稳定的性别特异性特征，但节律强度是由性别、交配状态和遗传背景之间的复杂相互作用形成的。这项研究推进了我们对性别和交配如何影响昼夜节律的理解，并为未来研究与昼夜节律紊乱相关的人类疾病的性别二态性机制提供了基础。
