Contribution of cryptochromes and photolyases for insect life under sunlight.

The cryptochrome/photolyase (CRY/PL) family is essential for life under sunlight because photolyases repair UV-damaged DNA and cryptochromes are normally part of the circadian clock that controls the activity-sleep cycle within the 24-h day. In this study, we aim to understand how the lineage and habitat of an insect affects its CRY/PL composition. To this end, we searched the large number of annotated protein sequences of 340 insect species already available in databases for CRY/PLs.