Identification of Gene Expression Changes in Sleep Mutants Associated With Reduced Longevity in Drosophila
type: CreativeWork
description: Sleep deprivation has become a common problem in modern society, yet the physiological consequences of sleep deprivation remain poorly understood. Sleep disruption has been shown to shorten lifespan in multiple animal species. In my thesis study, I investigated the relationship between sleep and longevity using Drosophila melanogaster. By analyzing the sleep and longevity profiles from a panel of sleep mutants, I discovered a robust positive correlation between daily sleep time and median longevity. This discovery led to my hypothesis that sleep disruption as a result of genetic mutation would elicit certain gene expression changes that ultimately would lead to shortened lifespan. To identify the genes that exhibited altered expression, I profiled the transcriptomes of wild type flies, aged wild type flies, and two sleep mutants insomniac1 (inc1) and wide awakeD2 (wakeD2) with total RNA samples collected every 4 hours for 2 days. Circadian analysis was performed to detect oscillating transcripts in each group, and the results revealed substantial variations in number of oscillating genes. By comparing the experimental groups to the control wild type group, I discovered large scale rhythmicity changes in the experimental groups. Aged wild type flies predominantly showed a gain of rhythmicity, while loss of rhythmicity was more evident in sleep mutants. Furthermore, with the transcriptome data as input, I developed a differential gene expression (DGE) analysis pipeline to select candidate genes that might serve as the connection between sleep disruption and longevity reduction. In the DGE analysis, each experimental group was compared with the control wild type group. Results from each comparison were subsequently intersected to pinpoint genes that were significantly changed in all experimental groups. Ultimately, 15 candidate genes stood out from the analysis. For the scope of this study, I focused on candidate gene Neuropeptide-like precursor 3 (Nplp3), a putative n…
abstract: Sleep deprivation has become a common problem in modern society, yet the physiological consequences of sleep deprivation remain poorly understood. Sleep disruption has been shown to shorten lifespan in multiple animal species. In my thesis study, I investigated the relationship between sleep and longevity using Drosophila melanogaster. By analyzing the sleep and longevity profiles from a panel of sleep mutants, I discovered a robust positive correlation between daily sleep time and median longevity. This discovery led to my hypothesis that sleep disruption as a result of genetic mutation would elicit certain gene expression changes that ultimately would lead to shortened lifespan. To identify the genes that exhibited altered expression, I profiled the transcriptomes of wild type flies, aged wild type flies, and two sleep mutants insomniac1 (inc1) and wide awakeD2 (wakeD2) with total RNA samples collected every 4 hours for 2 days. Circadian analysis was performed to detect oscillating transcripts in each group, and the results revealed substantial variations in number of oscillating genes. By comparing the experimental groups to the control wild type group, I discovered large scale rhythmicity changes in the experimental groups. Aged wild type flies predominantly showed a gain of rhythmicity, while loss of rhythmicity was more evident in sleep mutants. Furthermore, with the transcriptome data as input, I developed a differential gene expression (DGE) analysis pipeline to select candidate genes that might serve as the connection between sleep disruption and longevity reduction. In the DGE analysis, each experimental group was compared with the control wild type group. Results from each comparison were subsequently intersected to pinpoint genes that were significantly changed in all experimental groups. Ultimately, 15 candidate genes stood out from the analysis. For the scope of this study, I focused on candidate gene Neuropeptide-like precursor 3 (Nplp3), a putative n…
author: Wang, Zikun
keywords: sleep deprivation, longevity, drosophila, neuropeptides, circadian rhythm, gene expression, Life Sciences
date published: 2020-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:10:47Z
provider: Rockefeller
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Rockefeller