Melatonin entrainment of circannual rhythms.

A melatonin-based photoperiod timing mechanism and a circannual rhythm-generating system interact to govern seasonal cycles in physiology and behavior in many vertebrates. This paper focuses on the pars tuberalis (PT) of the mammalian pituitary gland as a model melatonin-responsive tissue to investigate the molecular basis of these two basic long-term timing processes.