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. J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys. 64: 707–720.

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: Variance spectra and a periodogram on behavior of Escherichia coli 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 certain diseases. Lancet (Minn.) 71: 312–319.

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. 2003.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 Entomologist
Vol. 53, No. 2, Summer 2007