Inducible clocks: living in an unpredictable world.

All mammals have daily cycles of behavior (e.g., wake-sleep and feeding), and physiology (e.g., hormone secretion and body temperature). These cycles are typically entrained to the external light/dark cycle, but they can be altered dramatically under conditions of restricted food availability, changes in ambient temperature, or the presence of external stimuli such as predators. During the past 30 years, one of the best studied of these responses has been the entrainment of circadian rhythms to food availability. Experiments in rats and other rodents have provided evidence for a food-entrainable oscillator (FEO) in the mammalian circadian timing system (CTS). Until recently, however, very little was understood about the locus subserving the FEO or the functional interrelationship between the FEO and the master CTS pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). We discuss here new data on the location of the FEO and suggest that it may involve an oscillator mechanism that is "induced" by starvation and refeeding.