Sleep and synaptic plasticity in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

FLORENCIA FERNANDEZ; NARA I MURARO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXX Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2015

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Sleepdeprivation, caused either by environmental or physiological factors, is likelyto interfere with the synaptic homeostasis processes associated to sleep. Theaim of this project is to describe sleep deprivation-associated changes ofsynaptic plasticity in the large lateral ventral neurons (lLNvs). These neuronsintersect the sleep and circadiancircuits of Drosophila and, interestingly, havebeen described to undergo synaptic changes under different environmentalconditions, including situations where sleep pressure is imposed to theorganism. However, this phenomenon has not been systematically analyzed yet. Weare studyingthe levels and distribution of different synaptic markers after sleepdeprivation, in particular we are assessing; 1) peptidergic neurotransmission;2) classical neurotransmission; 3) axonal structural plasticity and 4) anddendritic structural plasticity. In parallel, we are analyzing synapticplasticity when sleep is disturbed by genetic manipulation of lLNvsexcitability. Futureexperimental lines would delve into the role of predicted GABAergic inputs thatmediate homeostatic sleep regulation into the phenomenon of synaptic plasticitystudied.  Information obtained from this researchproject will help produce a model of synaptic plasticity in the context ofsleep deprivation. Moreover, it will aid in the understanding of how arousalneurons process information and translate it into its neuronal outputs.