Taro Fuchikawa

Graduate School of Science, Osaka City UniversityAssociate Professor*Profile is at the time of the award.

2018Inamori Research GrantsBiology & Life sciences

Research topics
Investigation on robustness of circadian behavioral rhythms enforced by forming groups in social insects
Keyword
Summary
Many living organisms exhibit a roughly 24-hour cyclic pattern in their activities, and this is called the circadian rhythm. A research project that earned the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine used drosophilae to reveal the core of a molecular system that generates the circadian rhythm. In the field, however, a variety of living organisms live in complex environments, and their circadian rhythms do not follow simple patterns. Take honeybees as an example. Many individual honeybees form one living group, and the group to which they belong affects the circadian rhythm that each individual exhibits. This is called social effect. Among the several kinds of social effects involved in a circadian rhythm, this proposed research is focused on the synchronization effect of the circadian rhythm, which presents in honeybees that live together. In order to reveal what adaptive significance synchronization of the circadian rhythm among individual honeybees has in the field, we will examine how the physiological state of honeybees would differ between those individuals that live together and those that do not, by irregularly changing the light and dark cycle in the laboratory.

Message from recipient

I cannot express my thanks enough for the generous support of my basic research topic. I will certainly devote myself to my research so that I can repay the faith that has been placed in me with fruitful results.

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Biology & Life sciences