Symposium number: 41

Title: CIRCADIAN RYTHMS AND PHOTOPERIODISM

Principal organizer: Vinod Kumar
Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, 226 007 India
email: drvkumar11@yahoo.com

Second organizer: Shizufumi Ebihara
Division of Biomodeling, Graduate School of Bioagriculture Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan

First keynote speaker: Shizufumi Ebihara
Division of Biomodeling, Graduate School of Bioagriculture Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Title of first keynote paper: An overview of the avian circadian system

Second keynote speaker: Thomas Hahn
Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behaviour, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8519, USA
Title of second keynote paper: Mechanism and adaptation in avian photoperiodism

Contributed talks

Symposium description: This symposium will address new findings emerging from integration of two regulatory mechanisms on the life of birds: circadian and photoperiodic rhythms. Many overt rhythmic functions in birds are governed by underlying circadian clocks, which also appear to be involved in the regulation of seasonal events, viz. migration and seasonal reproduction. Long an area of great interest in ornithology since the 1920s, avian photoperiodism has recently undergone a broadening of perspective in the way it interacts and integrates with responses to other types of cues in the avian environment. Molecular studies, moreover, have brought unexpected but important results to the biological clock, revealing, for example, that many peripheral tissues can have circadian oscillators. The recent finding of a gene involved in photoperiodic regulation of gonadal development may potentially open the way towards a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in avian photoperiodism. Because of the ubiquity of circadian rhythms and the importance of photoperiodism in regulating seasonal events in birds, this symposium makes the point that the class Aves is one of the best, if not the best, model for both circadian and photoperiodic research among vertebrates.

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