2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Functional analysis of calcineurin, a sleep-related gene in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
| Project/Area Number |
22700433
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Fusional basic brain science
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| Research Institution | Kumamoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
TOMITA Jun 熊本大学, 発生医学研究所, 特定事業研究員 (40432231)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010 – 2011
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| Keywords | ショウジョウバエ / 睡眠 / カルシニューリン / ドーパミン / 学習記憶 |
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| Research Abstract |
We recently reported that calcineurin(Ca^<2+>/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase) is an important regulator of sleep in Drosophila(Tomita et al., 2011). The pan-neuronal knockdown of Calcineurin A at 14F(CanA-14F), which is one of the three calcineurin catalytic A subunit genes in Drosophila, resulted in sleep loss, while an adult-specific misexpression of a constitutively active form of CanA-14F in all neurons increased sleep. We identified brain neurons important for the function of CanA-14F in sleep regulation by targeted CanA-14F knockdown using the GAL4-UAS system. Moreover, we found that knockdown of D1 dopamine receptor in these neurons significantly increased sleep. These results suggest a cross-talk between Ca^<2+>-calcineurin and dopaminergic signaling pathways in Drosophila sleep regulation.
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