Food quality modulates the balance between sleep and post-mating behaviors in Drosophila females

JENNY, BENJAMIN P.; BUCHLER, JOSEPH; DUHART, JOSÉ M.; KOH, KYUNGHEE

Congreso; 2021 CSHL Neurobiology of Drosophila; 2021

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Sleepis an essential process, but animals sometimes forgo sleep to engage in otherbehaviors, such as feeding and reproduction. Environmental cues and internalstates are integrated to make proper behavioral choices under varyingconditions. We recently showed that well-fed male flies reduce sleep to engagein courtship in the presence of female partners, but protein-deprived malesexhibit attenuated female-induced nighttime sleep loss. Female flies also showsleep plasticity related to mating; mated females show decreased sleep andspend more time near the food. In this work, we examined how access to food ofdiffering qualities affects post-mating sleep changes in female flies. We foundthat nighttime sleep was suppressed in mated females only on a food substrateadequate for egg-laying. Mated females did not suppress nighttime sleep onsucrose-only food, which is suitable for the survival of adults but not larvae.This finding suggests that flies perform a cost-benefit analysis that considersthe nutritional context in deciding whether the potential benefit of performingreproductive behaviors outweighs the cost of losing sleep. Both olfactory andgustatory sensory circuits convey information about food quality to modulatepost-mating sleep loss. Since mating elicits several behavioralchanges, including increased egg-laying and feeding, we tested whether neuronalcircuits involved in these behaviors also play a role in suppressing nighttimesleep in mated females. We found that both activation and inhibition of pC1neurons, which are part of the egg-laying circuit, abolished sleep differencesbetween mated and virgin flies. In addition, silencing neurons expressingNeuropeptide F (NPF), which regulates feeding behavior, prevented post-matingnighttime sleep loss. In summary, gustatory and olfactory inputs from foodsubstrates and information about mating status regulate the balance betweensleep and other post-mating behaviors through the PC1 and NPF pathways. Our workprovides novel insights into how organisms weigh conflicting motivations to selectthe appropriate behavior under different contexts.