Deep conservation of genes required for both Drosphila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans sleep includes a role for dopaminergic signaling

Catecholaminergic System of Invertebrates: Comparative and Evolutionary Aspects in Comparison With the Octopaminergic System

In this review we examined the catecholaminergic system of invertebrates, starting from protists and getting to chordates. Different techniques used by numerous researchers revealed, in most examined phyla, the presence of catecholamines dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline or of the enzymes involved in their synthesis. The catecholamines are generally linked to the nervous system and they can act as neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and hormones; moreover they play a very important role as regards the response to a large number of stress situations. Nevertheless, in some invertebrate phyla belonging to Protostoma, the monoamine octopamine is the main biogenic amine. The presence of catecholamines in some protists suggests a role as intracellular or interorganismal signaling molecules and an ancient origin of their synthetic pathways. The catecholamines appear also involved in the regulation of bioluminescence and in the control of larval development and metamorphosis in some marine invertebrate phyla.

Call it Worm Sleep

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans stops feeding and moving during a larval transition stage called lethargus and following exposure to cellular stressors. These behaviors have been termed 'sleep-like states'. We argue that these behaviors should instead be called sleep. Sleep during lethargus is similar to sleep regulated by circadian timers in insects and mammals, and sleep in response to cellular stress is similar to sleep induced by sickness in other animals. Sleep in mammals and Drosophila shows molecular and functional conservation with C. elegans sleep. The simple neuroanatomy and powerful genetic tools of C. elegans have yielded insights into sleep regulation and hold great promise for future research into sleep regulation and function.

Homeostasis in C. elegans sleep is characterized by two behaviorally and genetically distinct mechanisms

Biological homeostasis invokes modulatory responses aimed at stabilizing internal conditions. Using tunable photo- and mechano-stimulation, we identified two distinct categories of homeostatic responses during the sleep-like state of Caenorhabditis elegans (lethargus). In the presence of weak or no stimuli, extended motion caused a subsequent extension of quiescence. The neuropeptide Y receptor homolog, NPR-1, and an inhibitory neuropeptide known to activate it, FLP-18, were required for this process. In the presence of strong stimuli, the correlations between motion and quiescence were disrupted for several minutes but homeostasis manifested as an overall elevation of the time spent in quiescence. This response to strong stimuli required the function of the DAF-16/FOXO transcription factor in neurons, but not that of NPR-1. Conversely, response to weak stimuli did not require the function of DAF-16/FOXO. These findings suggest that routine homeostatic stabilization of sleep may be distinct from homeostatic compensation following a strong disturbance.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04380.001

The regenerative properties of sleep are required by all animals, with even the simplest animal, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, displaying a sleep-like state called lethargus. During development, nematodes must pass through four larval stages en route to adulthood, and the end of each stage is preceded by a period of lethargus lasting 2 to 3 hr.

Human sleep is divided into distinct stages that recur in a prescribed order throughout the night. Nematodes, on the other hand, simply experience alternating periods of activity and stillness as they sleep. Nevertheless, in both species, any disruptions to sleep automatically lead to adjustments of the rest of the sleep cycle to compensate for the disturbance and to ensure that the organism gets an adequate amount of sleep overall.

To date, it has been assumed that a single mechanism is responsible for adjusting the sleep cycle after any disturbance, regardless of its severity. However, Nagy, Tramm, Sanders et al. now show that this is not the case in C. elegans. Sleeping nematodes that were lightly disturbed by exposing them to light or to vibrations—causing them to briefly increase their activity levels—compensated for the disturbance by lengthening their next inactive period. By contrast, worms that were vigorously agitated by stronger vibrations showed a different response: the alternating pattern of stillness and activity was disrupted for several minutes, followed by an overall increase in the length of time spent in the stillness phase.

Experiments using genetically modified worms revealed that these two responses involve distinct molecular pathways. A signaling molecule called neuropeptide Y affects the response to minor sleep disruptions, whereas a transcription factor called DAF-16/FOXO is involved in the corresponding role after major disruptions. Given that neuropeptide Y has already been implicated in sleep regulation in humans and flies, it is not implausible that similar mechanisms may occur in response to disturbances of our own sleep.

DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04380.002

Gene expression changes of Caenorhabditis elegans larvae during molting and sleep-like lethargus

During their development, Caenorhabditis elegans larvae go through four developmental stages. At the end of each larval stage, nematodes molt. They synthesize a new cuticle and shed the old cuticle. During the molt, larvae display a sleep-like behavior that is called lethargus. We wanted to determine how gene expression changes during the C. elegans molting cycle. We performed transcriptional profiling of C. elegans by selecting larvae displaying either sleep-like behavior during the molt or wake behavior during the intermolt to identify genes that oscillate with the molting-cycle. We found that expression changed during the molt and we identified 520 genes that oscillated with the molting cycle. 138 of these genes were not previously reported to oscillate. The majority of genes that had oscillating expression levels appear to be involved in molting, indicating that the majority of transcriptional changes serve to resynthesize the cuticle. Identification of genes that control sleep-like behavior during lethargus is difficult but may be possible by looking at genes that are expressed in neurons. 22 of the oscillating genes were expressed in neurons. One of these genes, the dopamine transporter gene dat-1, was previously shown in mammals and in C. elegans to control sleep. Taken together, we provide a dataset of genes that oscillate with the molting and sleep-wake cycle, which will be useful to investigate molting and possibly also sleep-like behavior during lethargus.