Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Experimental Biology
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Journal of Experimental Biology

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube  

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About JEB
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Outstanding paper prize
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contact JEB
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
Research Article
Environmental entrainment demonstrates natural circadian rhythmicity in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis
Ann M. Tarrant, Rebecca R. Helm, Oren Levy, Hanny E. Rivera
Journal of Experimental Biology 2019 222: jeb205393 doi: 10.1242/jeb.205393 Published 12 November 2019
Ann M. Tarrant
1Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA 02543, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ann M. Tarrant
  • For correspondence: atarrant@whoi.edu
Rebecca R. Helm
1Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA 02543, USA
2Biology Department, University of North Carolina Asheville, Asheville NC 28804, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Rebecca R. Helm
Oren Levy
3Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Oren Levy
Hanny E. Rivera
1Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA 02543, USA
4Biology Department, Boston University, Boston MA 02215, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Hanny E. Rivera
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Supp info
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF + SI
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Considerable advances in chronobiology have been made through controlled laboratory studies, but distinct temporal rhythms can emerge under natural environmental conditions. Lab-reared Nematostella vectensis sea anemones exhibit circadian behavioral and physiological rhythms. Given that these anemones inhabit shallow estuarine environments subject to tidal inputs, it was unclear whether circadian rhythmicity would persist following entrainment in natural conditions, or whether circatidal periodicity would predominate. Nematostella were conditioned within a marsh environment, where they experienced strong daily temperature cycles as well as brief tidal flooding around the full and new moons. Upon retrieval, anemones exhibited strong circadian (∼24 h) activity rhythms under a light–dark cycle or continuous darkness, but reduced circadian rhythmicity under continuous light. However, some individuals in each light condition showed circadian rhythmicity, and a few individuals showed circatidal rhythmicity. Consistent with the behavioral studies, a large number of transcripts (1640) exhibited diurnal rhythmicity compared with very few (64) with semidiurnal rhythmicity. Diurnal transcripts included core circadian regulators, and 101 of 434 (23%) genes that were previously found to be upregulated by exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Together, these behavioral and transcriptional studies show that circadian rhythmicity predominates and suggest that solar radiation drives physiological cycles in this sediment-dwelling subtidal animal.

FOOTNOTES

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

  • Author contributions

    Conceptualization: A.M.T., O.L.; Methodology: R.R.H.; Formal analysis: A.M.T.; Investigation: A.M.T., R.R.H., H.E.R.; Resources: A.M.T.; Data curation: A.M.T.; Writing - original draft: A.M.T.; Writing - review & editing: R.R.H., O.L., H.E.R.; Visualization: A.M.T.; Supervision: A.M.T.; Project administration: A.M.T.; Funding acquisition: A.M.T., O.L.

  • Funding

    A.M.T., R.R.H. and O.L. were supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant number 4598 to A.M.T. and O.L.). H.E.R. was funded by a Martin Family Fellowship for Sustainability at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an American dissertation grant from the American Association of University Women.

  • Data availability

    All Illumina sequence files have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (BioProject ID PRJNA362308). Individual periodograms are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9747632.v1.

  • Supplementary information

    Supplementary information available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.205393.supplemental

  • Received April 17, 2019.
  • Accepted October 10, 2019.
  • © 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
http://www.biologists.com/user-licence-1-1/
View Full Text
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

Keywords

  • Chronobiology
  • Circadian
  • Cnidarian
  • Entrainment
  • Subtidal
  • UV radiation

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Experimental Biology.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Environmental entrainment demonstrates natural circadian rhythmicity in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Experimental Biology
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Experimental Biology web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Research Article
Environmental entrainment demonstrates natural circadian rhythmicity in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis
Ann M. Tarrant, Rebecca R. Helm, Oren Levy, Hanny E. Rivera
Journal of Experimental Biology 2019 222: jeb205393 doi: 10.1242/jeb.205393 Published 12 November 2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Research Article
Environmental entrainment demonstrates natural circadian rhythmicity in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis
Ann M. Tarrant, Rebecca R. Helm, Oren Levy, Hanny E. Rivera
Journal of Experimental Biology 2019 222: jeb205393 doi: 10.1242/jeb.205393 Published 12 November 2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • INTRODUCTION
    • MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Acknowledgements
    • FOOTNOTES
    • References
  • Figures & tables
  • Supp info
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF + SI
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Differing thermal sensitivities of physiological processes alter ATP allocation
  • The Murphy number: how pitch moment of inertia dictates quadrupedal walking and running energetics
  • Efficient high-voltage protection in the electric catfish
Show more RESEARCH ARTICLE

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Development

Journal of Cell Science

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

Meet the Editors at SICB Virtual 2021

Reserve your place to join some of the journal editors, including Editor-in-Chief Craig Franklin, at our Meet the Editor session on 17 February at 2pm (EST). Don’t forget to view our SICB Subject Collection, featuring relevant JEB papers relating to some of the symposia sessions.


2020 at The Company of Biologists

Despite 2020's challenges, we were able to bring a number of long-term projects and new ventures to fruition. As we enter a new year, join us as we reflect on the triumphs of the last 12 months.


Critical temperature window sends migratory black-headed buntings on their travels

The spring rise in temperature at black-headed bunting overwintering sites is essential for triggering the physical changes that they undergo before embarking on their spring migration – read more.


Developmental and reproductive physiology of small mammals at high altitude

Cayleih Robertson and Kathryn Wilsterman focus on high-altitude populations of the North American deer mouse in their review of the challenges and evolutionary innovations of pregnant and nursing small mammals at high altitude.


Read & Publish participation extends worldwide

“Being able to publish Open Access articles free of charge means that my article gets maximum exposure and has maximum impact, and that all my peers can read it regardless of the agreements that their universities have with publishers.”

Professor Roi Holzman (Tel Aviv University) shares his experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 60 institutions in 12 countries taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Interviews
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About JEB
  • Editors and Board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists
  • Journal news

For Authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Outstanding paper prize
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal Info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact JEB
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992