Department of Biomedical Sciences, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Spokane, WA 99202, USA.
Sleep and Performance Research Center, Washington State University, Spokane, WA 99210, USA.
Sci Adv. 2017 Apr 5;3(4):e1602663. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1602663. eCollection 2017 Apr.
Sleep is found widely in the animal kingdom. Despite this, few conserved molecular pathways that govern sleep across phyla have been described. The mammalian brain-type fatty acid binding protein (Fabp7) is expressed in astrocytes, and its mRNA oscillates in tandem with the sleep-wake cycle. However, the role of FABP7 in regulating sleep remains poorly understood. We found that the missense mutation FABP7.T61M is associated with fragmented sleep in humans. This phenotype was recapitulated in mice and fruitflies bearing similar mutations: -deficient mice and transgenic flies that express the FABP7.T61M missense mutation in astrocytes also show fragmented sleep. These results provide novel evidence for a distinct molecular pathway linking lipid-signaling cascades within astrocytes in sleep regulation among phylogenetically disparate species.
睡眠在动物界中广泛存在。尽管如此，很少有跨门描述的、能调节睡眠的保守分子途径被发现。哺乳动物脑型脂肪酸结合蛋白（Fabp7）在星形胶质细胞中表达，其 mRNA 与睡眠-觉醒周期同步振荡。然而，FABP7 在调节睡眠中的作用仍知之甚少。我们发现，错义突变 FABP7.T61M 与人类的睡眠片段化有关。在携带类似突变的小鼠和果蝇中重现了这种表型：-缺陷小鼠和在星形胶质细胞中表达 FABP7.T61M 错义突变的转基因果蝇也表现出睡眠片段化。这些结果为一个独特的分子途径提供了新的证据，该途径将脂质信号级联在不同进化起源的物种中的星形胶质细胞中的睡眠调节联系起来。
