Turek Michal, Besseling Judith, Spies Jan-Philipp, König Sabine, Bringmann Henrik
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
Elife. 2016 Mar 7;5:e12499. doi: 10.7554/eLife.12499.
Sleep is an essential behavioral state. It is induced by conserved sleep-active neurons that express GABA. However, little is known about how sleep neuron function is determined and how sleep neurons change physiology and behavior systemically. Here, we investigated sleep in Caenorhabditis elegans, which is induced by the single sleep-active neuron RIS. We found that the transcription factor LIM-6, which specifies GABAergic function, in parallel determines sleep neuron function through the expression of APTF-1, which specifies the expression of FLP-11 neuropeptides. Surprisingly FLP-11, and not GABA, is the major component that determines the sleep-promoting function of RIS. FLP-11 is constantly expressed in RIS. At sleep onset RIS depolarizes and releases FLP-11 to induce a systemic sleep state.
睡眠是一种基本的行为状态。它由表达γ-氨基丁酸(GABA)的保守睡眠活跃神经元诱导产生。然而,关于睡眠神经元功能是如何确定的,以及睡眠神经元如何系统性地改变生理和行为,我们知之甚少。在这里,我们研究了秀丽隐杆线虫的睡眠,它由单个睡眠活跃神经元RIS诱导产生。我们发现,指定GABA能功能的转录因子LIM-6,同时通过指定FLP-11神经肽表达的APTF-1的表达来确定睡眠神经元功能。令人惊讶的是,决定RIS促睡眠功能的主要成分是FLP-11,而不是GABA。FLP-11在RIS中持续表达。在睡眠开始时,RIS去极化并释放FLP-11以诱导全身性睡眠状态。