SLEEP TIGHT, FRUIT FLY: SCIENTISTS FIND GENE RESPONSIBLE FOR SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND METABOLIC DISORDE

The sleep habits of fruit flies are remarkably similar to humans. They get most of their sleep at night, certain drugs and stimulants like caffeine can negatively affect their sleep, and if they get a lousy night's sleep it can even affect their memory performance. But what can they tell us about the connection between sleep deprivation and metabolic disorders like diabetes, obesity, and blood glucose levels? According to a new study that first identified how a conserved gene, translin, works as a modulator of sleep in response to metabolic changes – a lot!

Acute sleep loss in humans is associated with increased appetite and insulin insensitivity, while chronically sleep-deprived individuals are more likely to develop obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Conversely, the metabolic state has a potent impact on modulating sleep and our body clocks. In humans, sleep and feeding are tightly interconnected, and pathological disturbances of either process are associated with metabolism-related disorders.

When fruit flies are hungry, they sleep less because they will sacrifice sleep for their quest to search for food. Researchers used fruit flies in their study and created various scenarios between sleeping and foraging to test each gene one at a time to determine which gene didn't affect their sleep. They carried out a nervous system-specific RNAi screen to identify the genes required to keep hungry flies awake. What they discovered is that translin, when knocked down in neurons, causes starving flies to sleep as soundly as they would on a full stomach. They also observed the same inability to suppress sleep while in starvation mode in the flies that carried a null mutation in translin.

While many genes have been identified as genetic regulators of sleep or metabolic state, mounting evidence from this study indicates that translin functions as a unique integrator of these processes

Thanks to: sciencedaily.com