Nature Neurosci：一种特别信号分子通道可让果蝇睡觉

佚名

    生物谷：科学家们发现了一种特别的信号通道，这种分子通道对果蝇睡眼的调控和维持来说至关重要。新研究在线发表在8月12号的《自然—神经科学》期刊上，它表明果蝇有可能成为研究睡眠调控分子通道的一种模式动物。

    果蝇(还有其他昆虫)的睡眼生物学过程类似于哺乳类动物，包括在睡觉过程中的静止不动以及睡眼被剥夺后对睡眼的额外补充。表皮生长因子受体参与了生命体24小时自然节奏的调控，Ralph  Greenspan和同事发现，激活该受体可导致睡眠的增加，阻止这一分子通道的活性则会减少睡眠，而且睡眼被剥夺后也很难被补上。这种调节作用发生在果蝇的大脑中，这一区域类似于哺乳类动物大脑中控制睡眠的下丘脑区域。

    新实验方法可帮助科学家们更快更好地鉴别调控睡眼的其他分子通道。制药公司也可利用这种方法来设计更多有助于睡眼的药物。（科学时报）

原始出处:

Nature Neuroscience

Published online: 12 August 2007; | doi:10.1038/nn1957

Activation of EGFR and ERK by rhomboid signaling regulates the consolidation and maintenance of sleep in Drosophila

Krisztina Foltenyi1, 2, Ralph J Greenspan2 & John W Newport1, 3

1 Department of Biology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, California 92093, USA.

2 The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Dr., San Diego, California 92121, USA.

3 Deceased.

Correspondence should be addressed to Ralph J Greenspan greenspan@nsi.edu

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling in the mammalian hypothalamus is important in the circadian regulation of activity. We have examined the role of this pathway in the regulation of sleep in Drosophila melanogaster. Our results demonstrate that rhomboid (Rho)- and Star-mediated activation of EGFR and ERK signaling increases sleep in a dose-dependent manner, and that blockade of rhomboid (rho) expression in the nervous system decreases sleep. The requirement of rho for sleep localized to the pars intercerebralis, a part of the fly brain that is developmentally and functionally analogous to the hypothalamus in vertebrates. These results suggest that sleep and its regulation by EGFR signaling may be ancestral to insects and mammals.

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