Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 September 2009:
Vol. 325. no. 5948, pp. 1700 - 1704
DOI: 10.1126/science.1176221
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Antennal Circadian Clocks Coordinate Sun Compass Orientation in Migratory Monarch Butterflies

Christine Merlin, Robert J. Gegear, Steven M. Reppert*

During their fall migration, Eastern North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) use a time-compensated Sun compass to aid navigation to their overwintering grounds in central Mexico. It has been assumed that the circadian clock that provides time compensation resides in the brain, although this assumption has never been examined directly. Here, we show that the antennae are necessary for proper time-compensated Sun compass orientation in migratory monarch butterflies, that antennal clocks exist in monarchs, and that they likely provide the primary timing mechanism for Sun compass orientation. These unexpected findings pose a novel function for the antennae and open a new line of investigation into clock-compass connections that may extend widely to other insects that use this orientation mechanism.

Department of Neurobiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Steven.Reppert{at}umassmed.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Unraveling Traveling.
C. P. Kyriacou (2009)
Science 325, 1629-1630
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)