Brain photoreceptor pathways contributing to circadian rhythmicity in crayfish

Freshwater crayfish have three known photoreceptive systems: the compound eyes, extraretinal brain photoreceptors, and caudal photoreceptors. The primary goal of the work described here was to explore the contribution of the brain photoreceptors to circadian locomotory activity and define some of the underlying neural pathways. Immunocytochemical studies of the brain photoreceptors in the parastacid (southern hemisphere) crayfish Cherax destructor reveal their expression of the blue light-sensitive photopigment cryptochrome and the neurotransmitter histamine. The brain photoreceptors project to two small protocerebral neuropils, the brain photoreceptor neuropils (BPNs), where they terminate among fibers expressing the neuropeptide pigment-dispersing hormone (PDH), a signaling molecule in arthropod circadian systems. Comparable pathways are also described in the astacid (northern hemisphere) crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Despite exhibiting markedly different diurnal locomotor activity rhythms, removal of the compound eyes and caudal photoreceptors in both C. destructor and P. clarkii (leaving the brain photoreceptors intact) does not abolish the normal light/dark activity cycle in either species, nor prevent the entrainment of their activity cycles to phase shifts of the light/dark period. These results suggest, therefore, that crayfish brain photoreceptors are sufficient for the entrainment of locomotor activity rhythms to photic stimuli, and that they can act in the absence of the compound eyes and caudal photoreceptors. We also demonstrate that the intensity of PDH expression in the BPNs varies in phase with the locomotor activity rhythm of both crayfish species. Together, these findings suggest that the brain photoreceptor cells can function as extraretinal circadian photoreceptors and that the BPN represents part of an entrainment pathway synchronizing locomotor activity to environmental light/dark cycles, and implicating the neuropeptide PDH in these functions.