Interdisciplinary Studies of Drosophila Rhythmic Behavior

我们之前的工作主要集中在果蝇S昼夜节律的分子机制上。最初以果蝇为特征的基因的同源基因，现在被认为与控制包括鱼类、青蛙、老鼠和人类在内的脊椎动物的节律行为和生理有关。在这里，我们散文四类跨学科的苍蝇S节奏行为的调查。(1)我们将扩大经典的遗传筛查(化学诱变)，以发现导致异常活动/静止模式的突变。X染色体筛选产生了几个对睡眠持续时间或阶段有影响的突变系。在未来的工作中，我们将确定受影响基因的身份，它们表达的细胞和分子模式，并开始在2号和3号染色体上进行可比较的筛查。(2)我们将描述一种新型的睡眠减少突变失眠症。它们每天持续休息约400分钟，比野生型少近9小时。我们将确定失眠症在大脑中的表达部位，表达失眠症的细胞是否在组织睡眠中发挥其他作用，以及何时需要失眠功能来确定睡眠持续时间。(3)我们发现当果蝇维持在一个光周期中时，周期mRNA经历了每天的多聚腺苷酸化周期。长时间的光照可以延缓多聚腺苷化的时间。我们将确定这些反应是否为日长(季节性)测量提供了一种新的机制。

Our prior work has focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying Drosophila¿s circadian rhythms. Orthologs of genes initially characterized in Drosophila have now been linked to the control of rhythmic behavior and physiology in vertebrates, including fish, frogs, mice and humans. Here we prose four classes of interdisciplinary investigations of the fly¿s rhythmic behavior. (1) We will extend a classical genetic screen (chemical mutagenesis) for mutations conferring aberrant activity/rest patterns. An X-chromosomal screen produced several mutant lines with effects on either sleep duration or phase. In future work, we will determine the identity of the affected genes, the cellular and molecular patterns of their expression, and will start a comparable screen on chromosomes 2 and 3. (2) We will characterize a novel, reduced- sleep mutant insomniac. These consistently rest for ~400 min/day, nearly 9 hours less than wild type. We will determine where insomniac is expressed within the brain, wheterh cells expressing insomniac have other roles in organizing sleep, and when insomniac function is required to determine sleep duration. (3) We have discovered that when Drosophila are maintained in a photocycle, period mRNA undergoes daily cycles of polyadenylation. The time of polyadenylation can be delayed by prolonged exposure to light. We will determine whether these responses provide a novel mechanism for day- length (seasonal) measurement.