Chronobiology—Biological Timekeeping
J. C. Dunlap, J. J. Loros, P. J. DeCoursey.
Editors:
Sinauer Associates Publishers, Sunderland, MA
2003, 406 pp., Price: $79.95
ISBN: 0-87893-149-X
Any book introducing the fascinating field of
chronobiology (the science of objectively quantifying and investigating
mechanisms of biologic time structure, including rhythmic manifestations
of life) is most welcome. In 11 chapters, more than 250 illustrations,
and 4 color plates, readers are exposed to some historical background,
properties of circadian rhythms (self-sustained oscillators, temperature
compensation, and amenability to synchronization), circannual rhythms
and photoperiodism, physiological and molecular aspects of circadian
systems, and selected areas in which chronobiology finds human
applications in everyday life.
The authors deserve great credit for popularizing an inferential
statistical science. It helps the lay reader that the presentations are
mostly without curve fitting or estimation of parameters and are without
any measure of uncertainty. Only a short paragraph mentions critical
parameters such as the period (or frequency), amplitude and phase of a
rhythm. A definition is only provided for the period and phase, not for
the amplitude or the MESOR (midline estimating statistic
of rhythm). This is understandable because much of the
evidence provided in the book relies on double-plotted actograms rather
than on time series analysis. The authors selected good examples to
illustrate key concepts, while rogues are only briefly mentioned.
The book is dedicated to the memory of two
great scholars, Colin S. Pittendrigh and Jürgen Aschoff. Pittendrigh’s
eloquence helped to popularize the science, even though published
correspondence (Cambrosio and Keating 1983) has it that he fought
chronobiology for many years, eventually realizing the need for an
inferential (time microscopic) mapping of rhythms by publishing a phase
chart of the time relation of more than 50 murine variables (Halberg et
al. 2003).
After an overview of biological timing from unicells to humans and
of how rhythmic environmental features shaped the temporal aspects of
behavioral ecology, the authors present two major themes dealing with
the circadian and circannual variations. These are illustrated in
different species, from bacteria to plants, insects and mammals. As a
major synchronizer of rhythms, light reception is considered as well as
the effect of melatonin and pinealectomy, and the role of the
suprachiasmatic nuclei. A large section of the book deals with the
cellular and molecular organization underlying biological time
structures. Circannual features related to migration, hibernation,
reproductive cycles in animals and flowering in plants are related to
the circadian organization. The last part of the book addresses the
relevance of circadian rhythms for human welfare.
The authors offer only a biased view of
chronobiology (Luce 1970), whereas broadening the scope of the field
would have improved the overall volume. For example, they could have
documented the role of the adrenal cortex as a major component of the
circadian system that originally helped understand the involvement of
the hypothalamus, being essential to the latter’s action (Halberg et al.
1951, 1959). A reference to the fact that RNA synthesis precedes DNA
synthesis in a circadian cell cycle (Halberg et al. 1958) would have
been useful to those who think that an RNA world preceded ours. Mention
of the inferential statistical demonstration of free-running that
originally led to the new science of chronobiology (Halberg et al. 1954)
and of circadian desynchronization assessed with its uncertainties
(Halberg 1969), and credit for the coinage of circadian (Halberg 1959)
could be given in the next edition of this valuable book.
On the positive side, the authors deserve
credit for writing about circadian rhythms in prokaryotes, which was
viewed as questionable when first documented by Halberg and Conner
(1961). They rightly recognize that the suprachiasmatic nuclei, while
playing an important role in the coordination of time structures, are
not the master clock they once were thought to be. They also point to
the limitation of the concept of circadian clocks, replacing it by one
of circadian programs, while not (yet?) embracing the concept of broad
time structures (chronomes).
Major emphasis is placed on photoperiodism.
Apart from circadian rhythms, one chapter is devoted to circannual
variation and reference is also made to ‘lunar’ changes, thereby
encompassing three major periodicities. Little if any reference is made
to other chronome components, such as the about-weekly or circaseptan
variation, even in the context of the rhythms’ development from birth to
old age, extremes of extrauterine life when a built-in week is
prominently expressed. Magnetoperiodism is not considered, despite
accumulating evidence for the role of nonphotic influences on biota
(Cornélissen et al. 2002). This was long recognized in the East and
championed by Frank Brown (1960) since the historical meeting of Cold
Spring Harbor.
The hours of changing resistance are covered too briefly if
chronotherapy is to be advocated, notably in relationship to cardiology
and oncology. Human applications in the last three chapters of the book
deal primarily with alertness, performance, shift work, jet lag, and
sleep and mood. Considerable attention is given to determining the
“endogenous” circadian variation by using constant routine or forced
desynchronization protocols. Achievements such as the doubling of the
two-year disease-free survival of patients with peri-oral cancers by
timing radiotherapy according to tumor temperature used as a marker
rhythm or the identification of circadian rhythm alterations within the
physiological range prompting the institution of preventive measures in
the field of chronocardiology could be included in the next edition.
A summary at the end of each chapter and the annotated table of
contents help assimilate the materials presented and locate topics of
interest. The book is engaging and easy to read. It is addressed to a
wide audience that will no doubt want to learn more about the
interdisciplinary aspects of chronobiology (Luce 1970, Aschoff 1974,
Cambrosio and Keating 1983, Halberg et al. 2003). It is written at the
level of advanced undergraduate or graduate students, but everyone
interested in the life sciences would enjoy reading it as well. It is of
interest to chronobiologists engaged in many specialties, and
particularly to those interested in behavioral biology. While
incomplete, it is the latest volume in a rapidly evolving field1.
The recommendations expressed herein are those from a reviewer who
fell in love with the science of chronobiology for its great potential
applications in medicine, a topic perhaps beyond the scope of the
authors’ biological timekeeping aspects of the field. This highly
welcome time-macroscopic book is unreservedly recommended as an elegant
review of a field that for the past 50 years has also rested on the
objective assessment of rhythm characteristics for applications dealing
with basic science, biomedical applications, and a better understanding
of interactions between the environment, near and far, and biota as they
share reciprocal time structures. If this book leads to time-microscopy,
it will have provided an essential service to basic science and
indirectly to health care.
References Cited
Aschoff, J. 1974. Speech after dinner. 1974. Capri Symposium on
timing and toxicity, pp. 483–495. In Aschoff, J., F. Ceresa, F.
Halberg (Eds.). Chronobiological aspects of endocrinology. 1974/Chronobiologia
1 (Suppl. 1). F. K. Schattauer Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany.
Brown, F. A. Jr. 1960.
Response to pervasive geophysical factors and the biological clock
problem. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 25: 57–71.
Cambrosio A, and P. Keating. 1983.
The disciplinary stake: the case of chronobiology. Soc. Stud. Sci. 13:
323–353.
Cornélissen, G., F. Halberg, T. Breus, E. V. Syutkina, R. Baevsky,
A. Weydahl, Y. Watanabe, K. Otsuka, J. Siegelova, B. Fiser, and E. E.
Bakken. 2002.
Non-photic
solar associations of heart rate variability and myocardial infarction.
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Halberg, F. 1959. Physiologic 24-hour periodicity; general and
procedural considerations with reference to the adrenal cycle.
Z. Vitam.–Horm. Fermentforsch. 10: 225–296.
Halberg, F. 1969.
Chronobiology. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 31: 675–725.
Halberg, F., R. L. Conner. 1961. Circadian organization and microbiology:
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growing in fluid culture. Proc. Minn. Acad. Sci 29: 227–239.
Halberg, F., M. B. Visscher, E. B. Flink, K. Berge, F. Bock. 1951.
Diurnal rhythmic changes in blood eosinophil levels in health and in
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Halberg, F., M. B. Visscher, J. J. Bittner. 1954.
Relation of visual factors to eosinophil rhythm in mice. Am. J. Physiol.
179: 229–235.
Halberg, F., C. P. Barnum, R. H. Silber, J. J. Bittner.
1958.
24-hour rhythms at several levels of integration in mice on
different lighting regimens. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. (NY) 97: 897–900.
Halberg, F., E. Halberg, C. P. Barnum, J. J. Bittner.
1959. Physiologic 24-hour periodicity in human beings and mice, the
lighting regimen and daily routine, pp. 803–878. In R. B. Withrow,
(Ed.). Photoperiodism and related phenomena in plants and animals.
Educational Publication 55. AAAS, Washington, DC.
Halberg, F., G. Cornélissen, G. Katinas, E. V.
Syutkina, R. B. Sothern, R. Zaslavskaya, Fr. Halberg, Y. Watanabe, O.
Schwartzkopff, K. Otsuka, R. Tarquini, F. Perfetto, and J. Siegelova.
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Transdisciplinary unifying implications of circadian findings in the
1950s. J. Circ. Rhythms 1: 2.
Koukkari W.L., R.B. Sothern. 2006.
Introducing biological rhythms.Springer.
Luce, G. G. 1970. Biological rhythms in psychiatry and medicine.
U.S. Public Health Service Publication 2088. National Institute of
Mental Health, Chevy Chase, MD.
Refinetti R. 2006. Circadian physiology. CRC Press. Taylor &
Francis.
Germaine Cornélissen
Halberg
Chronobiology Center
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
corne001@umn.edu
American Entomology
Vol. 53, No. 2, Summer 2007
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