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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
A Sleep State In Drosophila Larvae Required For Neural Stem Cell Proliferation, Milan Szuperak, Matthew A. Churgin, Christopher Fang-Yen, Kayser S. Matthew
A Sleep State In Drosophila Larvae Required For Neural Stem Cell Proliferation, Milan Szuperak, Matthew A. Churgin, Christopher Fang-Yen, Kayser S. Matthew
Christopher Fang-Yen
Sleep during development is involved in refining brain circuitry, but a role for sleep in the earliest periods of nervous system elaboration, when neurons are first being born, has not been explored. Here we identify a sleep state in Drosophila larvae that coincides with a major wave of neurogenesis. Mechanisms controlling larval sleep are partially distinct from adult sleep: octopamine, the Drosophila analog of mammalian norepinephrine, is the major arousal neuromodulator in larvae, but dopamine is not required. Using real-time behavioral monitoring in a closed-loop sleep deprivation system, we find that sleep loss in larvae impairs cell division of neural …
Distributed Rhythm Generators Underlie Caenorhabditis Elegans Forward Locomotion, Anthony D. Fouad, Christopher Fang-Yen
Distributed Rhythm Generators Underlie Caenorhabditis Elegans Forward Locomotion, Anthony D. Fouad, Christopher Fang-Yen
Christopher Fang-Yen
Coordinated rhythmic movements are ubiquitous in animal behavior. In many organisms, chains of neural oscillators underlie the generation of these rhythms. In C. elegans, locomotor wave generation has been poorly understood; in particular, it is unclear where in the circuit rhythms are generated, and whether there exists more than one such generator. We used optogenetic and ablation experiments to probe the nature of rhythm generation in the locomotor circuit. We found that multiple sections of forward locomotor circuitry are capable of independently generating rhythms. By perturbing different components of the motor circuit, we localize the source of secondary rhythms …