Journal Article

Identification of a dopamine pathway that regulates sleep and arousal in Drosophila

Tanimoto, Hiromu, Kume, Kazuhiko, Kume, Shoen, Ueno, Taro, Ito, Kei, Endo, Keita, Tomita, Jun

2012

Overview

Dopamine signaling is known to influence sleep and arousal in Drosophila . Here the authors identify the circuitry underlying the effect of dopamine on arousal, which involves D1 dopamine receptors in the dorsal fan-shaped body as the target of dopaminergic projections. Sleep is required to maintain physiological functions, including memory, and is regulated by monoamines across species. Enhancement of dopamine signals by a mutation in the dopamine transporter ( DAT ) decreases sleep, but the underlying dopamine circuit responsible for this remains unknown. We found that the D1 dopamine receptor (DA1) in the dorsal fan-shaped body (dFSB) mediates the arousal effect of dopamine in Drosophila . The short sleep phenotype of the DAT mutant was completely rescued by an additional mutation in the DA1 (also known as DopR) gene, but expression of wild-type DA1 in the dFSB restored the short sleep phenotype. We found anatomical and physiological connections between dopamine neurons and the dFSB neuron. Finally, we used mosaic analysis with a repressive marker and found that a single dopamine neuron projecting to the FSB activated arousal. These results suggest that a local dopamine pathway regulates sleep.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/378/1385 / 631/378/548/1964 / Analysis of Variance / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Animals / Animals, Genetically Modified / Arousal - physiology / Behavioral Sciences / Biological Techniques / Biomedicine / Cyclic AMP - pharmacology / Dopamine / Dopamine - genetics / Dopamine - metabolism / Dopamine - pharmacology / Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics / Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - metabolism / Dopamine receptors / Dopaminergic Neurons - drug effects / Dose-Response Relationship, Drug / Drosophila / Drosophila Proteins - genetics / Drosophila Proteins - metabolism / Gene Expression Regulation - drug effects / Gene Expression Regulation - genetics / Gene Expression Regulation - physiology / Genotype & phenotype / Green Fluorescent Proteins - genetics / Insects / Luminescent Proteins - genetics / Membrane Proteins - metabolism / Memory / Memory - drug effects / Motor Activity - drug effects / Motor Activity - genetics / Mutation / Mutation - genetics / Nerve Net - physiology / Neurobiology / Neurons / Neurons - physiology / Neurosciences / Odorants / Physiological aspects / Physiology / Psychological aspects / Receptors, Dopamine D1 - genetics / Receptors, Dopamine D1 - metabolism / Signal Transduction - drug effects / Signal Transduction - genetics / Sleep / Sleep - physiology / Sodium Channel Blockers - pharmacology / Tetrodotoxin - pharmacology / Time Factors / Transcription Factors - metabolism