A team of American biologists has achievedisolate genes that regulate sleep-hunger conflict. The finding, which appears published in the latest issue ofCurrent Biology, sheds light onhow the brain chooses between different key survival behaviors.
Previous studies showed thatthe neural systems that control sleep and eating in mammals are interconnected, so thatlack of sleep makes us want to eat and hunger takes away the desire to sleep. However, little was known about the genes and neural bases of this interaction.
To find an explanation, researchers from New York University and the University of Massachusetts examined the fruit fly.Drosophila melanogaster, which has genes similar to those of mammals to control sleep, wakefulness and metabolism. First, the scientists determined that food deprivation caused insomnia in flies, meaning that lack of food affects their sleep behaviors in the same way that it does sleep in mammals.
After conducting an initial screening of 2,000 genes, they identified nearly12 genes involved in the interaction between diet and sleep. Among these dozen genes, they chose two –Clock (Clk) y cycle (cyc)– which play a role in regulating the biological clock of fruit flies and which are also present in mammals. Testing fruit flies with and without genesClk and c and c under conditions of food deprivation, showed thathungry flies that did not have both genes slept three to four times less than those that did possess these genes. Thus, the results showed thatgenes helped sleep in conditions of food deprivation.
“We know that the brain is wired to perform more than two actions at the same time, but the role that different genes played in these actions was less evident,” explained Alex Keene, lead author of the study.
