Abstract
Behavioral experiments with passerine birds and physiological experiments with the pineal of chickens demonstrate that the avian pineal contains one or more circadian oscillators (for review see, Takahashi and Menaker 1979). In house sparrows, the pineal is necessary for the persistence of circadian rhythmicity (Gaston and Menaker 1968); pineal transplants restore circadian rhythmicity in arrhythmic pinealectomized hosts (Zimmerman and Menaker 1975, Menaker and Zimmerman 1976); and, more importantly, pineal transplants determine the phase of the restored rhythm (Zimmerman and Menaker 1979). These results argue that the pineal functions as a pacemaker within the circadian system of the sparrow.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Axelrod J, Zatz M (1977) The β-adrenergic receptor and the regulation of circadian rhythms in the pineal gland. In: Litwack G (ed) Biochemical actions of hormones, vol IV. Academic Press, London New York, pp 249–268
Binkley S (1976) Comparative biochemistry of the pineal gland of birds and mammals. Am Zool 16: 57–65
Binkley S, Geller EB (1975) Pineal N-acetyltransferase in chickens: Rhythm persists in constant darkness. J Comp Physiol 99: 67–70
Binkley S, MacBride SE, Klein DC, Ralph C (1973) Pineal enzymes: Regulation of avian melatonin synthesis. Science 181: 273–275
Binkley S, MacBride SE, Klein DC, Ralph C (1975) Regulation of pineal rhythms in chicks: Refractory period and nonvisual light perception. Endocrinology 96: 848–853
Binkley SA, Reibman JB, Reilly KB (1978) The pineal gland: A biological clock in vitro. Science 202: 1198–1201
Deguchi T (1979) Circadian rhythm of serotonin N-acetyltransferase activity in organ culture of chicken pineal gland. Science 203: 1245–1247
Gaston S, Menaker M (1968) Pineal function: The biological clock in the sparrow? Science 160: 1125–1127
Kasal C, Menaker M, Perez-Polo R (1979) Circadian clock in culture: N-acetyltransferase activity of chick pineal glands oscillates in vitro. Science 203: 656–658
Klein DC (1978) The pineal gland: A model of neuroendocrine regulation. In: Reichlin S, Baldessarini R, Martin JB (eds) The hypothalamus. Raven, New York, pp 303–327
Menaker M, Zimmerman N (1976) Role of the pineal in the circadian system of birds. Am Zool 16: 45–55
Pelham RW (1975) A serum melatonin rhythm in chickens and its abolition by pinealectomy. Endocrinology 96: 543–546
Ralph CL, Pelham RW, MacBride SE, Reilly DP (1974) Persistent rhythms of pineal and serum melatonin in cockerels in continuous darkness. J Endocrinol 63: 319–324
Takahashi JS, Menaker M (1979) Physiology of avian circadian pacemakers. Fed Proc 38: 2583–2588
Takahashi JS, Hamm H, Menaker M (1980) Orcadian rhythms of melatonin release from individual superfused chicken pineal glands in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77: 2319–2322
Wainwright SD, Wainwright LK (1979) Chick pineal serotonin acetyltransferase: A diurnal cycle maintained in vitro and its regulation by light. Can J Biochem 57: 700–709
Wainwright SD, Wainwright LK (1980) Regulation of the cycle in chick pineal serotonin N-acetyltransferase activity in vitro by light. J Neurochem 35: 451–457
Zimmerman NH, Menaker M (1975) Neural connections of sparrow pineal: Role in circadian control of activity. Science 190: 477–479
Zimmerman NH, Menaker M (1979) The pineal: A pacemaker within the circadian system of the house sparrow. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76: 999–1003
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1982 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Takahashi, J.S. (1982). Circadian Rhythms of the Isolated Chicken Pineal in Vitro. In: Aschoff, J., Daan, S., Groos, G.A. (eds) Vertebrate Circadian Systems. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68651-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68651-1_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-68653-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-68651-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive