Locomotor behavior summary for the pdf⁰¹ mutant and RNAi control lines.

Mutants lacking Pdf display several changes in locomotor rhythms as first described by Renn et al., (1999). Pdf⁰¹ mutants display higher levels of arhythmicity under DD, a shortened free-running period (p<0.0001 by t-test), and an advanced evening peak phase compared to wild-type flies (p<0.0001 by t-test). However, there was no significant difference between these genotypes in the power of the locomotor rhythm of rhythmic flies (p = 0.130) under the experimental conditions used here. All control lines displayed high levels of DD rhythmicity. The uas-Dcr2 and uas-PDFrnai elements had little if any effects on locomotor rhythms when present as single copies. However the combination of uas-Dcr2 and two copies of uas-PDFrnai resulted in an increased period and significantly delayed evening peak. One-way ANOVA of free-running period indicated a significant difference between genotypes, and a Tukey's multiple comparison test revealed a significant difference between w¹¹¹⁸ and uas-dcr2 (p<0.05) and between uas-Dcr2/y;;uas-PDFrnai and all other genotypes. These control lines also displayed significant differences in the phase of evening activity (p<0.0001 by ANOVA), with Tukey's test revealing significant differences for all pairs of genotype except w¹¹¹⁸ versus uas-Dcr2).