AI Article Synopsis
- Sleep is observed in all studied species, yet its exact functions remain unclear, leading to research on gene expression differences in awake vs. sleeping rats.
- About 10% of gene transcripts in the cerebral cortex change between day and night, with half of these changes influenced by sleep and wakefulness regardless of the time of day.
- Results indicate that sleep is linked to various functional gene categories, with around 100 genes showing increased expression during sleep, suggesting its role in protein synthesis, neural plasticity, and membrane maintenance.
Article Abstract
Sleep is present in all species where it has been studied, but its functions remain unknown. To investigate what benefits sleep may bring at the cellular level, we profiled gene expression in awake and sleeping rats by using high-density microarrays. We find that approximately 10% of the transcripts in the cerebral cortex change their expression between day and night and demonstrate that half of them are modulated by sleep and wakefulness independent of time of day. We also show that molecular correlates of sleep are found in the cerebellum, a structure not known for generating sleep rhythms. Finally, we show that different functional categories of genes are selectively associated with sleep and wakefulness. The approximately 100 known genes whose expression increases during sleep provide molecular support for the proposed involvement of sleep in protein synthesis and neural plasticity and point to a novel role for sleep in membrane trafficking and maintenance.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(03)00814-6 | DOI Listing |
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