Time to eat your vegetables: the role of circadian clocks in insect herbivory
Time to eat your vegetables: the role of circadian clocks in insect herbivory
Insects exhibit a range of ecological relationships with plants, including pollination, seed dispersal, parasitism, predation, and herbivory. Interactions between insects and plants are shaped by internal daily timekeeping systems in both sets of organisms termed circa-dian clocks. This review describes the impact of the circadian clocks of insects and plants on herbivory, which is highly relevant not only to natural ecosystems, but also to agricul-ture and forest management. Following an introduction to the circadian clocks of plants and insects, we discuss the circadian organization of relevant aspects of plant metabolism and defense. Next, we describe how insect clocks govern herbivory-associated physiology and behavior before exploring how rhythmic processes in plants and insects interact to temporally control herbivory. Finally, we describe how insights from the clock control of herbivory may inform pest management strategies and what future research in this area may contribute.
Arabidopsis, Drosophila, agriculture, chronoculture, circadian clock, ecology, entrainment, insect herbivory, insecticide, lepidoptera, output, phase alignment, plant defense
Smith, Lena
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Tyler, Connor J.
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Mahajan, Shubhangi
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Okamoto, Haruko
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Wijnen, Herman
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25 January 2026
Smith, Lena
eaa9f521-a3be-4887-80fc-45deca3bcea1
Tyler, Connor J.
ca9c1ad8-3dc3-4c51-82ce-9c42164311d4
Mahajan, Shubhangi
06732dcb-30f9-44f6-87b0-176457ecd50b
Okamoto, Haruko
d5506456-64ac-464d-8a2a-3a3b7a01e6ba
Wijnen, Herman
67e9bc5d-de6e-44ec-b4c2-50b67c5bc79d
Smith, Lena, Tyler, Connor J., Mahajan, Shubhangi, Okamoto, Haruko and Wijnen, Herman
(2026)
Time to eat your vegetables: the role of circadian clocks in insect herbivory.
Insects, 17 (2), [139].
(doi:10.3390/insects17020139).
Abstract
Insects exhibit a range of ecological relationships with plants, including pollination, seed dispersal, parasitism, predation, and herbivory. Interactions between insects and plants are shaped by internal daily timekeeping systems in both sets of organisms termed circa-dian clocks. This review describes the impact of the circadian clocks of insects and plants on herbivory, which is highly relevant not only to natural ecosystems, but also to agricul-ture and forest management. Following an introduction to the circadian clocks of plants and insects, we discuss the circadian organization of relevant aspects of plant metabolism and defense. Next, we describe how insect clocks govern herbivory-associated physiology and behavior before exploring how rhythmic processes in plants and insects interact to temporally control herbivory. Finally, we describe how insights from the clock control of herbivory may inform pest management strategies and what future research in this area may contribute.
Text
insects-17-00139-v2
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 January 2026
Published date: 25 January 2026
Keywords:
Arabidopsis, Drosophila, agriculture, chronoculture, circadian clock, ecology, entrainment, insect herbivory, insecticide, lepidoptera, output, phase alignment, plant defense
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 509911
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/509911
ISSN: 0077-2356
PURE UUID: d8734f8e-7a9d-45fb-b1d2-fe95a3a68fac
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Date deposited: 10 Mar 2026 17:54
Last modified: 11 Mar 2026 03:08
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Contributors
Author:
Lena Smith
Author:
Shubhangi Mahajan
Author:
Haruko Okamoto
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