The131th KARC Colloquium
The131th KARC Colloquium was ended. Thank you for the participation.
| Date&Time | 4 October 2018(Fri) 13:30-15:00 |
| Place | Large Conference Room, 3F, Research Building 2, Advanced ICT Research Institute |
| Lecturer | Genetic Dissection of Sleep in Fruit Flies~The discovery of a novel somnogen~ |
| Speaker | Hirofumi Toda University of Pennsylvania Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Specialist |
| Abstract | What makes us sleep? Sleep is a phenomenon conserved from humans to insects. We know that animals cannot carry out any single productive behavior such as finding mates or foraging for foods during sleep. There is even a life-threatening danger of being attacked by predators while animals are asleep. Sleep seems to be disadvantageous from an evolutionally point of view. Nevertheless, animals need to sleep and we have no satisfactory answers for why. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of how sleep occurs and is maintained could help to address this mystery. Drosophila is a powerful model system to study multiple biological phenomena including sleep: 1) it has a relatively simple central nervous system, 2) advanced genetic tools are available, and 3) molecular and cellular mechanisms are shared with those in mammals. Sleep is postulated to be controlled by the balance between opposing networks that facilitate sleep and wakefulness. Previous genetic screens carried out in Drosophila have identified genetic factors that modulate wakefulness and sleep. However, the sleep-promoting factors identified thus far appear to be permissive for sleep rather than instructive; their loss reduces sleep, but they are insufficient to increase sleep when their expression levels are elevated. In order to identify genetic factors that are necessary and sufficient for sleep, we carried out an unbiased and genome-wide gain of function genetic screen. We discovered a novel gene, “nemuri” that induces sleep in Drosophila. In this seminar, I introduce the role of nemuri in sleep and its surprising link to immune function and survival. |
| Language | Japanese |
| Admission | Free |