Chronic jet lag impairs startle-induced locomotion in Drosophila

Endogenous circadian clocks with ~24-h periodicity are found in most organisms from cyanobacteria to humans. Daylight synchronizes these clocks to solar time. In humans, shift-work and jet lag perturb clock synchronization, and such perturbations, when repeated or chronic, are strongly suspected to be detrimental to healthspan. Here we investigated locomotor aging and longevity in Drosophila melanogaster with genetically or environmentally disrupted clocks. We compared two mutations in period (per, a gene essential for circadian rhythmicity in Drosophila), after introducing them in a common reference genetic background: the arrhythmic per⁰¹, and per^T which displays robust short 16-h rhythms. Compared to the wild type, both per mutants showed reduced longevity and decreased startle-induced locomotion in aging flies, while spontaneous locomotor activity was not impaired. The per⁰¹ phenotypes were generally less severe than those of per^T, suggesting that chronic jet lag is more detrimental to aging than arrhythmicity in Drosophila. Interestingly, the adjustment of environmental light-dark cycles to the endogenous rhythms of the per^T mutant fully suppressed the acceleration in the age-related decline of startle-induced locomotion, while it accelerated this decline in wild-type flies. Overall, our results show that chronic jet lag accelerates a specific form of locomotor aging in Drosophila, and that this effect can be alleviated by environmental changes that ameliorate circadian rhythm synchronization.