Sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms: a molecular perspective
Event details
| Date | 02.04.2009 |
| Hour | 12:15 |
| Speaker | Paul Franken |
| Location |
SV 1717a
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
In the study of sleep two main regulatory processes have to be considered: a homeostatic process that is activated by and counters the effects of sleep loss and a circadian process that determines the time–of–day sleep preferably occurs. The fine–tuned interaction between the two permits us to stay awake and alert throughout the day and to remain asleep at night. To gain inside into the molecular correlates of the homeostatic process and its interaction with the circadian process we apply a combination of forward, molecular, and reverse genetic approaches in the mouse. Using Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis in recombinant inbred (RI) lines of mice as a forward genetics tool, we identified the Dps1 QTL for the homeostatic sleep response after sleep deprivation for which the transcript Homer1a is a good candidate. Comprehensive transcriptome analyses confirmed a role of Homer1a in sleep homeostasis. The same analyses indicated that the genes known to set circadian time are also involved in the homeostatic regulation of sleep. We confirmed this in mice lacking one or more of the core clock components. Thus at least at a cellular level the same molecular circuitry seems to be implicated in both circadian rhythms and sleep homeostasis, challenging the accepted notion that these processes are separate.
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Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Bruno Lemaitre