The daily sleep cycle in humans and other mammals is driven by a complex circuit within which GABAergic sleep-promoting neurons oppose arousal systems. The latter includes the circadian system, aminergic/cholinergic systems as well as neurons secreting the peptide orexin/hypocretin, which contribute to sharp behavioral transitions (Lu and Greco, 2006). Drosophila sleep has recently been shown also to be controlled by GABAergic inputs, which act on unknown cells expressing the Rdl GABAA receptor (Agosto et al., 2008). We identify here the relevant Rdl-containing cells as a subset of the well-studied Drosophila circadian clock neurons, the PDF-expressing small and large ventral lateral neurons (LNvs). LNv activity regulates the total amount of sleep as well as the rate of sleep onset, and both large and small LNvs are part of the sleep circuit. Flies mutant for either the pdf gene or its receptor are hypersomnolent, and PDF acts on the LNvs themselves to control sleep. These features of the Drosophila sleep circuit, GABAergic control of sleep onset and maintenance as well as peptidergic control of arousal, support the idea that features of sleep circuit architecture as well as the mechanisms governing the behavioral transitions between sleep and wake are conserved between mammals and insects.

Alternative splicing is thought to be regulated by nonspliceosomal RNA binding proteins that modulate the association of core components of the spliceosome with the pre-mRNA. Although the majority of metazoan genes encode pre-mRNAs that are alternatively spliced, remarkably few splicing regulators are currently known. Here, we used RNA interference to examine the role of >70% of the Drosophila RNA-binding proteins in regulating alternative splicing. We identified 47 proteins as splicing regulators, 26 of which have not previously been implicated in alternative splicing. Many of the regulators we identified are nonspliceosomal RNA-binding proteins. However, our screen unexpectedly revealed that altering the concentration of certain core components of the spliceosome specifically modulates alternative splicing. These results significantly expand the number of known splicing regulators and reveal an extraordinary richness in the mechanisms that regulate alternative splicing. P re-mRNA splicing involves the removal of introns and ligation of the flanking exons. This reaction is catalyzed by the spliceosome, a macromolecular machine composed of five RNAs and hundreds of proteins (1). Alternative splicing generates multiple mRNAs from a single gene, thus increasing proteome diversity (2). Alternative splicing also plays a key role in the regulation of gene expression in many developmental processes ranging from sex determination to apoptosis (3), and defects in alternative splicing have been linked to many human disorders (4). In general, alternative splicing is regulated by proteins that associate with the pre-mRNA and function to either enhance or repress the ability of the spliceosome to recognize the splice site(s) flanking the regulated exon (5). Whether a particular alternative exon will be included or excluded from an mRNA in each cell is thought to be determined by the relative concentration of a number of positive and negative splicing regulators and the interactions of these factors with the pre-mRNA and components of the spliceosome (5).Although at least 74% of human genes encode alternatively spliced mRNAs (6), relatively few splicing regulators have been identified. Much of our insight into the mechanisms of splicing regulation was initially obtained by genetic analysis of the sex determination pathway in Drosophila (3). These experiments have identified three proteins, Sex-lethal (SXL), Transformer (TRA), and Transformer 2 (TRA2), that tightly regulate the alternative splicing of five genes, Sex-lethal, transformer, male specific lethal-2, fruitless, and doublesex. Subsequent biochemical experiments helped to elucidate the mechanisms by which SXL, TRA, and TRA2 function in this pathway. Aside from these examples, a simple genetic system to analyze specific alternative splicing events has not been available. Here we describe an RNA interference (RNAi) screen in cultured Drosophila cells designed to identify RNA-binding proteins that regulate alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs transcribed from endogenous ge...

Many lines of evidence indicate that GABA and GABA A receptors make important contributions to human sleep regulation. Pharmacological manipulation of these receptors has differential effects on sleep onset and sleep maintenance insomnia. Here we show that sleep is regulated by GABA in Drosophila and that a mutant GABA A receptor, Rdl A302S , specifically decreases sleep latency. The drug carbamazepine (CBZ) has the opposite effect on sleep; it increases sleep latency as well as decreasing sleep. Behavioral and physiological experiments indicated that Rdl A302S mutant flies are resistant to the effects of CBZ on sleep latency and that mutant RDL A302S channels are resistant to the effects of CBZ on desensitization, respectively. These results suggest that this biophysical property of the channel, specifically channel desensitization, underlies the regulation of sleep latency in flies. These experiments uncouple the regulation of sleep latency from that of sleep duration and suggest that the kinetics of GABA A receptor signaling dictate sleep latency.Insomnia is the most common sleep problem and affects approximately one third of the adult American population 1 . Patients with insomnia are generally subdivided into three categories: sleep onset insomnia, sleep maintenance insomnia and terminal insomnia (early-morning awakening coupled with an inability to return to sleep) 2 . The biological basis for these insomnia classifications remains unknown. Nonetheless, a single class of drugs, agonistic modulators of GABA A receptors, effectively ameliorates these diverse symptoms 2,3 . GABA A receptors are a family of pentameric ligand-gated Cl -channels 4 and are a major source of inhibitory currents throughout the CNS 5,6 . These receptors are also an important target for pharmacologic treatment of many other neurological disorders in addition to sleep 7 .The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal model for dissecting the relationships between molecules and behaviors, as well as between different sleep states 8,9 . As in mammals, it has been shown that the sleep-like state of Drosophila is associated with reduced sensory responsiveness and reduced brain activity 10,11 , and is subject to both circadian and homeostatic regulation 12,13 . Researchers have also identified a number of genes 14,15 , Notably, the mutation that causes the insecticide resistance phenotype (A302S) 20 specifically decreases the rate of RDL desensitization with little or no effect on other channel properties 23 . As a consequence, the mutant receptor has a longer single channel open duration and, therefore, increased channel current, at least under certain conditions (see below). Because of these characteristics, and because this mutation does not have obvious effects on health or viability, we decided to establish the importance of GABAergic transmission to sleep in flies and to examine the effects of the Rdl mutation.Interestingly, flies with this mutant GABA A receptor subunit slept more, primarily because of decreased sleep lat...

SUMMARY Increasing ambient temperature reorganizes the Drosophila sleep pattern in a way similar to the human response to heat, increasing daytime sleep while decreasing nighttime sleep. Mutation of core circadian genes blocks the immediate increase in daytime sleep, but not the heat-stimulated decrease in nighttime sleep, when animals are in a light:dark cycle. The ability of per01 flies to increase daytime sleep in light:dark can be rescued by expression of PER in either LNv or DN1p clock cells and does not require rescue of locomotor rhythms. Prolonged heat exposure engages the homeostat to maintain daytime sleep in the face of nighttime sleep loss. In constant darkness, all genotypes show an immediate decrease in sleep in response to temperature shift during the subjective day, implying that the absence of light input uncovers a clock-independent proarousal effect of increased temperature. Interestingly, the effects of temperature on nighttime sleep are blunted in constant darkness and in cryOUT mutants in light:dark, suggesting that they are dependent on the presence of light the previous day. In contrast, flies of all genotypes kept in constant light sleep more at all times of day in response to high temperature, indicating that the presence of light can invert the normal nighttime response to increased temperature. The effect of temperature on sleep thus reflects coordinated regulation by light, the homeostat, and components of the clock, allowing animals to reorganize sleep patterns in response to high temperature with rough preservation of the total amount of sleep.

The gene encoding dARC1, one of three Drosophila homologs of mammalian activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (ARC), is upregulated in both seizure and muscular hypercontraction mutants. In this study we generate a null mutant for dArc1 and show that this gene is not involved in synaptic plasticity at the larval neuromuscular junction or in formation or decay of short-term memory of courtship conditioning, but rather is a modifier of stress-induced behavior. dARC1 is expressed in a number of neurosecretory cells and mutants are starvation-resistant, exhibiting an increased time of survival in the absence of food. Starvation resistance is likely due to the fact that dArc1 mutants lack the normal hyperlocomotor response to starvation, which is almost universal in the animal kingdom. dARC1 acts in insulin-producing neurons of the pars intercerebralis to control this behavior, but does not appear to be a general regulator of insulin signaling. This suggests that there are multiple modes of communication between the pars and the ring gland that control starvation-induced behavioral responses.