Do Flies Count Sheep or NMDA Receptors to Go to Sleep?

Abstract

The drive to sleep increases the longer that we stay awake, but this process is poorly understood at the cellular level. Now, Liu et al. show that the plasticity of a small group of neurons in the Drosophila central brain is a key component of the sleep homeostat.

Magnesium and the magnesium transporter UEX regulate sleep via Ca2+-dependent CREB signaling and a CNK-ERK pathway

“…Ca 2+ -permeable NMDAR channels, together with their downstream genes, also participate in sleep regulation (Liu et al, 2016;Lymer and Blau, 2016). Magnesium is an important ATP cofactor (Jahnen-Dechent and Ketteler, 2012), also acting as a regulator of voltage-dependent Ca 2+ channels (Pilchova et al, 2017).…”

“…The calcium channel TRPA1 can also monitor the ambient temperature and regulate changes in the sleep response of Drosophila to different temperatures (Roessingh and Stanewsky, 2017). Ca 2+ -permeable NMDAR channels, together with their downstream genes, also participate in sleep regulation (Liu et al, 2016; Lymer and Blau, 2016). Magnesium is an important ATP cofactor (Jahnen-Dechent and Ketteler, 2012), also acting as a regulator of voltage-dependent Ca 2+ channels (Pilchova et al, 2017).…”