Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States.
Elife. 2017 Nov 6;6:e25727. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25727.
Sleep is an essential and phylogenetically conserved behavioral state, but it remains unclear to what extent genes identified in invertebrates also regulate vertebrate sleep. RFamide-related neuropeptides have been shown to promote invertebrate sleep, and here we report that the vertebrate hypothalamic RFamide neuropeptide VF (NPVF) regulates sleep in the zebrafish, a diurnal vertebrate. We found that NPVF signaling and -expressing neurons are both necessary and sufficient to promote sleep, that mature peptides derived from the NPVF preproprotein promote sleep in a synergistic manner, and that stimulation of -expressing neurons induces neuronal activity levels consistent with normal sleep. These results identify NPVF signaling and -expressing neurons as a novel vertebrate sleep-promoting system and suggest that RFamide neuropeptides participate in an ancient and central aspect of sleep control.
睡眠是一种基本的、在进化上保守的行为状态，但目前尚不清楚在无脊椎动物中发现的基因在多大程度上也调节脊椎动物的睡眠。已经证明 RFamide 相关神经肽促进无脊椎动物的睡眠，在这里我们报告说，脊椎动物下丘脑的 RFamide 神经肽 VF（NPVF）调节斑马鱼的睡眠，斑马鱼是一种昼行性脊椎动物。我们发现 NPVF 信号和表达神经元既是必需的，也是促进睡眠所必需的，成熟的肽源自 NPVF 前蛋白以协同方式促进睡眠，刺激表达神经元诱导与正常睡眠一致的神经元活动水平。这些结果确定 NPVF 信号和表达神经元作为一种新型的脊椎动物促进睡眠的系统，并表明 RFamide 神经肽参与睡眠控制的一个古老和核心方面。
