(Non-potluck post)->Genetic Mechanisms Mediating the Circadian Regulation of Sleep

Sleep is one of the crucial behaviors  characterizing living organisms including humans and it is suggested to be regulated by the organism's internal circadian biological clock. To have an improved understanding about this relationship, this recent paper published in Trends in Genetics, reviews the genetic implication in the circadian regulation of sleep and wake by comparing the findings generated from recent research on human, mice, zebrafish and fruitfies.  

Blum and his colleagues indicate the role played by the clock genes in sleep regulation . They show how knocking out clock genes in mice and flies results in sleep disturbance in these species. They also show how the change in the clock genes results in sleep disorders in human. For example, the mutation in the clock genes Period3 and Cryptochrome1 have been associated to delayed sleep phase syndrom in human. The gene mutant aanat2 which regulates sleep-controlling hormones such as melatonine  has also shown a negative effect on sleep as evidence by research conducted on zebrafish. The authors of this review continue to discuss the genetic mechanisms in neural excitability of sleep- wake circuits where the alteration of the genes regulating the clock neurons results in varying lengths of sleep.

Fig.1 Some of the genes involved in circadian regulation of sleep and their functions (The whole list is in the original paper)

You can find the published paper on the follwing link:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168952518300015

Axelle
First Non-potluck post
Paper (2018) from Trends in Genetics