Unique transcriptional signatures of sleep loss across independently evolved cavefish populations.

ABSTRACT: Animals respond to sleep loss with compensatory rebound sleep, and this is thought to be critical for the maintenance of physiological homeostasis. Sleep duration varies dramatically across animal species, but it is not known whether evolutionary differences in sleep duration are associated with differences in sleep homeostasis. The Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, has emerged as a powerful model for studying the evolution of sleep. While eyed surface populations of A. mexicanus sleep approximately 8 hr each day, multiple blind cavefish populations have converged on sleep patterns that total as little as 2 hr each day, providing the opportunity to examine whether the evolution of sleep loss is accompanied by changes in sleep homeostasis. Here, we examine the behavioral and molecular r

SUBMITTER: McGaugh SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7606354 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature