diapause

[dahy-uh-pawz]

noun

1. a period of hormonally controlled quiescence, especially in immature insects, characterized by cessation of growth and reduction of metabolic activity, often occurring seasonally or when environmental conditions are unfavorable.

verb (used without object)

diapaused, diapausing 

1. to undergo diapause.

diapause

/ ˈdaɪəˌpɔːz /

noun

1. a period of suspended development and growth accompanied by decreased metabolism in insects and some other animals. It is correlated with seasonal changes

Word History and Origins

Origin of diapause¹

1890–95; < Greek diápausis; dia-, pause

Word History and Origins

Origin of diapause¹

C19: from Greek diapausis pause, from diapauein to pause, bring to an end, from _dia- + pauein to stop

Example Sentences

Like many insects, ladybirds enter a state of inactivity over winter known as diapause – an insect version of hibernation.

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To survive the annual dry season, the fish's embryos enter a state of extreme suspended animation or "diapause" for approximately 8 months.

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They report May 30 in the journal Cell that although killifish evolved diapause less than 18 million years ago, they did so by co-opting ancient genes that originated more than 473 million years ago.

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Through comparative analysis, the team showed that similar specialized gene expression patterns are also employed by other animals -- including the house mouse -- during diapause.

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"The whole program is like day and night -- there is life in the normal state and life in the diapause state, and the way this happened was by reshuffling or re-wiring the regulatory region of a whole set of genes," says senior author and molecular biologist Anne Brunet of Stanford University.

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