Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.

Recent human studies suggest that genetic polymorphisms allow an individual to maintain optimal cognitive functioning during sleep deprivation. If such polymorphisms were not associated with additional costs, selective pressures would allow these alleles to spread through the population such that an...

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Main Authors: Donlea, J, Leahy, A, Thimgan, MS, Suzuki, Y, Hughson, B, Sokolowski, M, Shaw, P
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
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author Donlea, J
Leahy, A
Thimgan, MS
Suzuki, Y
Hughson, B
Sokolowski, M
Shaw, P
author_facet Donlea, J
Leahy, A
Thimgan, MS
Suzuki, Y
Hughson, B
Sokolowski, M
Shaw, P
author_sort Donlea, J
collection OXFORD
description Recent human studies suggest that genetic polymorphisms allow an individual to maintain optimal cognitive functioning during sleep deprivation. If such polymorphisms were not associated with additional costs, selective pressures would allow these alleles to spread through the population such that an evolutionary alternative to sleep would emerge. To determine whether there are indeed costs associated with resiliency to sleep loss, we challenged natural allelic variants of the foraging gene (for) with either sleep deprivation or starvation. Flies with high levels of Protein Kinase G (PKG) (for(R)) do not display deficits in short-term memory following 12 h of sleep deprivation. However, short-term memory is significantly disrupted when for(R) flies are starved overnight. In contrast, flies with low levels of PKG (for(s), for(s2)) show substantial deficits in short-term memory following sleep deprivation but retain their ability to learn after 12 h of starvation. We found that for(R) phenotypes could be largely recapitulated in for(s) flies by selectively increasing the level of PKG in the α/β lobes of the mushroom bodies, a structure known to regulate both sleep and memory. Together, these data indicate that whereas the expression of for may appear to provide resilience in one environmental context, it may confer an unexpected vulnerability in other situations. Understanding how these tradeoffs confer resilience or vulnerability to specific environmental challenges may provide additional clues as to why an evolutionary alternative to sleep has not emerged.
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spelling oxford-uuid:77b9de2c-6776-4d7c-9e38-39f9bd0cdbc92022-03-26T20:25:59ZForaging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:77b9de2c-6776-4d7c-9e38-39f9bd0cdbc9EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Donlea, JLeahy, AThimgan, MSSuzuki, YHughson, BSokolowski, MShaw, PRecent human studies suggest that genetic polymorphisms allow an individual to maintain optimal cognitive functioning during sleep deprivation. If such polymorphisms were not associated with additional costs, selective pressures would allow these alleles to spread through the population such that an evolutionary alternative to sleep would emerge. To determine whether there are indeed costs associated with resiliency to sleep loss, we challenged natural allelic variants of the foraging gene (for) with either sleep deprivation or starvation. Flies with high levels of Protein Kinase G (PKG) (for(R)) do not display deficits in short-term memory following 12 h of sleep deprivation. However, short-term memory is significantly disrupted when for(R) flies are starved overnight. In contrast, flies with low levels of PKG (for(s), for(s2)) show substantial deficits in short-term memory following sleep deprivation but retain their ability to learn after 12 h of starvation. We found that for(R) phenotypes could be largely recapitulated in for(s) flies by selectively increasing the level of PKG in the α/β lobes of the mushroom bodies, a structure known to regulate both sleep and memory. Together, these data indicate that whereas the expression of for may appear to provide resilience in one environmental context, it may confer an unexpected vulnerability in other situations. Understanding how these tradeoffs confer resilience or vulnerability to specific environmental challenges may provide additional clues as to why an evolutionary alternative to sleep has not emerged.
spellingShingle Donlea, J
Leahy, A
Thimgan, MS
Suzuki, Y
Hughson, B
Sokolowski, M
Shaw, P
Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title_full Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title_fullStr Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title_full_unstemmed Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title_short Foraging alters resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in Drosophila.
title_sort foraging alters resilience vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in drosophila
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