Effects of D-amino acids on sleep in Drosophila.

Sleep and metabolism are closely related and nutritional elements such as sugars and amino acids are known to regulate sleep differently. Here we comprehensively investigated the effects of D-amino acids fed in the diet on the sleep of Drosophila melanogaster. Among 19 amino acids examined, both D-serine (Ser) and D-glutamine (Gln) induced a significant increase in sleep amount and the effect of D-Ser was the largest at the same concentration of 1% of the food.

Protocerebral Bridge Neurons That Regulate Sleep in .

The central complex is one of the major brain regions that control sleep in . However, the circuitry details of sleep regulation have not been elucidated yet. Here, we show a novel sleep-regulating neuronal circuit in the protocerebral bridge (PB) of the central complex.

Genes and neural circuits for sleep of the fruit fly.

Sleep is a universal physiological state evolutionarily conserved among species, but the molecular basis for its regulation is still largely unknown. Due to its electroencephalogram criteria, sleep has long been investigated and described mostly in mammalian species. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has emerged as a genetic model organism for studying sleep.