Regulation of sleep in the Mexican cavefish

虽然睡眠在动物界几乎是普遍存在的，但调节睡眠的生理功能和生物因素仍不清楚。该项目旨在了解饮食和新陈代谢如何影响睡眠时间，使用失明的墨西哥洞穴鱼作为模型系统。墨西哥洞穴鱼是一个非常翔实的系统，用于检查行为和遗传适应。 这些鱼被困在洞穴中约1-8百万年前，并已适应这些营养不良的环境，大大减少睡眠和发展许多生理变化，包括改变新陈代谢，眼睛丧失和白化病。该项目将确定睡眠减少的进化基础。这些鱼类栖息在河流表面和洞穴种群之间的栖息地差异为研究生态学和进化历史对睡眠的影响提供了一个独特的机会。睡眠将在高脂肪或低脂肪饮食中进行测量，以确定高热量饮食是否能够恢复洞穴鱼的正常睡眠。此外，还将对遗传杂交鱼的睡眠和其他觅食行为进行测试，以确定是否有不同或重叠的基因调节睡眠减少和进食行为改变。总之，这些实验将确定墨西哥洞穴鱼睡眠不足的进化基础。在这个项目中产生的工作将有助于我们了解睡眠的生物学基础，并可能扩展到更好地了解人类饮食和睡眠之间的关系。 除了为生活学科的科学知识做出贡献外，该项目还将为学生培训和在当地社区开展外联活动提供机会。 将与当地一所高中建立教学实验室，让学生接触行为生态学和神经科学研究。 所有开发的实验室协议将在网上提供，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.