Feeding is not a more potent Zeitgeber than the light-dark cycle in Drosophila

Daily scheduled feeding is a potent Zeitgeber that elicits anticipatory activity in mammals. Recent studies have revealed that daytime feeding of nocturnal laboratory rodents completely inverts the phase of circadian gene expression in peripheral tissues such as heart, liver and kidney, independently of environmental light cycles. To investigate whether feeding is a potent time cue for Drosophila, we examined the behavioral activity rhythm and peripheral expression profile of clock genes in Drosophila under 12 h of night-time restricted feeding. We found that flies could not exhibit food-anticipatory activity rhythms under restricted feeding. Expression profiles of the clock genes period and timeless were not affected by either the phase or the amplitude in the periphery. These results suggest that feeding is not a more potent Zeitgeber than the light/dark cycle at either the individual behavioral level or at the peripheral molecular clock levels in Drosophila.