Control of sleep-like behavior through a kinase and an ion channel subunit
General Genetics and Functional Genome Biology
Sensory and Behavioural Biology
Final Report Abstract
Caenorhabditis elegans is a widely used model organism for studying developmental biology and neurobiology. Its short life cycle, known cell lineage and connectome, sequenced genome, and the transparency of the organism, make it a powerful model for the investigation of various biological processes. In this thesis work, we made use of the worm to study the genetics of sleep. We made use of the simplicity of the C. elegans nervous system to investigate an uncharacterized sleep mutant and a sleep-inducing circuit. The F52B5.2(ok2069) mutant was found in a reverse genetic screen to possess a hyperactive sleep phenotype. By behavioral characterization of the mutant, we could show that its behavior is disturbed on several levels including locomotion, mechanosensation, and neuronal activity regulation. We found that the ok2069 mutation is probably not responsible for the observed phenotype and identified tom-1 as a candidate for sleep regulation in this mutant strain. Summarizing, by use of the great potential of C. elegans as a model to manipulate genetics and to study the effects thereof, we contributed to understanding the regulation of sleep. Further work will be required to understand the mechanisms important in sleep regulation.
