Clock accuracy and precision evolve as a consequence of selection for adult emergence in a narrow window of time in fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster

Although circadian clocks are believed to have evolved under the action of periodic selection pressures (selection on phasing) present in the geophysical environment, there is very little rigorous and systematic empirical evidence to support this. In the present study, we examined the effect of selection for adult emergence in a narrow window of time on the circadian rhythms of fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster. Selection was imposed in every generation by choosing flies that emerged during a 1 h window of time close to the emergence peak of baseline/control flies under 12 h:12 h light:dark cycles. To study the effect of selection on circadian clocks we estimated several quantifiable features that reflect inter- and intra-individual variance in adult emergence and locomotor activity rhythms. The results showed that with increasing generations, incidence of adult emergence and activity of adult flies during the 1 h selection window increased gradually in the selected populations. Flies from the selected populations were more homogenous in their clock period, were more coherent in their phase of entrainment, and displayed enhanced accuracy and precision in their emergence and activity rhythms compared with controls. These results thus suggest that circadian clocks in D. melanogaster evolve enhanced accuracy and precision when subjected to selection for emergence in a narrow window of time.