Identification of Neurons with a Privileged Role in Sleep Homeostasis in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Sleep is thought to be controlled by two main processes: a circadian clock that primarily regulates sleep timing and a homeostatic mechanism that detects and responds to sleep need. Whereas abundant experimental evidence suggests that sleep need increases with time spent awake, the contributions of different brain arousal systems have not been assessed independently of each other to determine whether certain neural circuits, rather than waking per se, selectively contribute to sleep homeostasis. Using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, we found that sustained thermogenetic activation of three independent neurotransmitter systems promoted nighttime wakefulness. However, only sleep deprivation resulting from activation of cholinergic neurons was sufficient to elicit subsequent homeostat

SUBMITTER: Seidner G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4654679 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature