Maternal entrainment of the developing circadian system in the Siberian hamster (Phodopus sungorus)

The aim of these studies was to investigate maternal entrainment of developing circadian locomotor activity rhythms in the Siberian hamster. In Experiment 1, mothers were transferred from a 16:8 LD cycle into constant dim red light (DD) from the day of parturition, and wheel-running activity of the mother and pups was individually monitored from the time of weaning. The phases of the individual pups' rhythms were found to be synchronized both to the phase of the mother and to the phase of lights off (ZT 12) of the photo cycle that the mother was exposed to until the day of parturition. To investigate whether this synchrony might reflect direct effects of light acting upon the fetal circadian system in late gestation, the experiment was repeated but with mothers placed into DD early in pregnancy (< or = day 7 of gestation). The results were similar to the first study, suggesting that the mother rather than the photo cycle during the latter part of gestation entrains the developing circadian system. The third experiment investigated whether this entrainment occurred during the postnatal period. Breeding pairs were maintained on alternative light-dark cycles, LD and DL, that were 12 h out of phase. Litters born to mothers on one light-dark cycle were exchanged on the day of birth with foster mothers from the reversed light-dark cycle, then raised in DD. Control litters exchanged between mothers from the same light-dark cycle had similar litter synchrony as shown by nonfostered litters of Experiment 1. However, pups cross-fostered with mothers on reversed LD cycles showed a very different distribution of pup phases. Pups were not synchronized to their natural mother but to their foster mother. Moreover, pups were more scattered over the 24-h period and were found to be significantly synchronized to the phase of the reversed LD cycle. These results demonstrate the occurrence of postnatal entrainment in the Siberian hamster. The increased scatter produced by the cross-fostering paradigm results from some litters being completely entrained to the phase of the foster mother, some with an intermediate distribution between the phase of the natural and foster mothers, and a minority being associated with the phase of the natural mother. These results suggest that Siberian hamster pups are initially synchronized either prenatally or at birth but that the mother continues to provide entrainment signals during the postnatal period.