AUTHOR=Sakata Kazuki , Kawasaki Haruhisa , Suzuki Takahiro , Ito Kumpei , Negishi Osamu , Tsuno Takuo , Tsuno Hiromi , Yamazaki Youta , Ishida Norio 

TITLE=Inositols affect the mating circadian rhythm of Drosophila melanogaster

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2015.00111

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2015.00111

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>Accumulating evidence indicates that the molecular circadian clock underlies the mating behavior of <italic>Drosophila melanogaster.</italic> However, information about which food components affect circadian mating behavior is scant. The ice plant, <italic>Mesembryanthemum crystallinum</italic> has recently become a popular functional food. Here, we showed that the close-proximity (CP) rhythm of <italic>D. melanogaster</italic> courtship behavior was damped under low-nutrient conditions, but significantly enhanced by feeding the flies with powdered ice plant. Among various components of ice plants, we found that <italic>myo</italic>-inositol increased the amplitude and slightly shortened the period of the CP rhythm. Real-time reporter assays showed that <italic>myo</italic>-inositol and <sc>D</sc>-pinitol shortened the period of the circadian reporter gene <italic>Per2-luc</italic> in NIH 3T3 cells. These data suggest that the ice plant is a useful functional food and that the ability of inositols to shorten rhythms is a general phenomenon in insects as well as mammals.</p>