Regulation of sleep in the Mexican cavefish

虽然睡眠几乎在整个动物界都很普遍，但调节睡眠的生理功能和生物因素仍然不清楚。这个项目试图了解饮食和新陈代谢如何影响睡眠时间，使用盲目的墨西哥洞穴鱼作为模型系统。墨西哥穴居鱼是一种信息量极大的系统，用于检查行为和遗传适应。这些鱼被困在大约100-800万年前的洞穴中，通过极大地减少睡眠和发展许多生理变化，包括新陈代谢改变、眼睛丧失和白化，从而适应了这些营养不良的环境。这个项目将确定睡眠减少的进化基础。这些鱼在河面和洞穴中栖息地的差异为研究生态和进化史对睡眠的影响提供了一个独特的机会。将测量喂食高脂肪或低脂肪食物的鱼的睡眠，以确定高卡路里食物是否能够恢复穴居鱼的正常睡眠。此外，将对遗传杂交鱼类的睡眠和其他觅食行为进行测试，以确定是不同的还是重叠的基因调节睡眠减少和改变摄食行为。综上所述，这些实验将确定墨西哥穴居鱼睡眠不足的进化基础。该项目的工作将有助于我们理解睡眠的生物学基础，并有可能扩展到更好地理解人类饮食和睡眠之间的关系。除了促进跨生命学科的科学知识外，该项目还将为学生培训和在当地社区推广提供机会。将与当地一所高中一起开发教学实验室，让学生接触行为生态学和神经科学研究。所有开发的实验室方案都将在网上提供，供其他高中和教学机构访问和使用。此外，该项目将资助参加第一代和少数民族大学生项目的学生在研究实验室工作。

While sleep is nearly universal throughout the animal kingdom, the physiological functions and biological factors regulating sleep remain unclear. This project seeks to understand how diet and metabolism influence sleep duration using the blind Mexican cavefish as a model system. The Mexican cavefish is an extremely informative system for examining behavioral and genetic adaptations. These fish were trapped in caves ~1-8 million years ago, and have adapted to these nutrient-poor environments by dramatically reducing sleep and developing numerous physiological changes, including altered metabolism, eye-loss, and albinism. This project will determine the evolutionary basis for the reduction in sleep. The differences in habitat between river-dwelling surface and cave populations of these fish present a unique opportunity to examine the effects of ecology and evolutionary history on sleep. Sleep will be measured in fish fed either a high or a low-fat diet to determine whether high-calorie diets are capable of restoring normal sleep in cavefish. Furthermore, genetic hybrid fish will be tested for sleep and other foraging behaviors to determine whether distinct or overlapping genes regulate reduced sleep and altered feeding behaviors. Taken together, these experiments will determine the evolutionary basis for sleep loss in Mexican cavefish. Work produced in this project will contribute to our understanding of the biological basis of sleep with potential extension to a better understanding of the relationship between diet and sleep in humans. In addition to contributing to scientific knowledge across life disciplines, this project will provide opportunities for student training and outreach in the local community. Teaching laboratories will be developed with a local high school to expose students to behavioral ecology and neuroscience research. All developed lab protocols will be made available online for access and use at other high schools and teaching institutions. Additionally, this project will fund students enrolled in programs for first generation and minority college students to work in the research laboratory.