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Updated: May 23, 2026

The Sleep Nullifying Apparatus: A Highly Efficient Method of Sleep Depriving Drosophila
Published on: December 14, 2020
Control of sleep by cyclin A and its regulator
Dragana Rogulja1, Michael W Young
1Laboratory of Genetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Abstract:
How and why the brain reversibly switches from a waking to a sleep state remain among the most intriguing questions in biology. We show that cyclin A (CycA) and regulator of cyclin A1, essential cell cycle factors, function in postmitotic neurons to promote sleep in Drosophila melanogaster. Reducing the abundance of CycA in neurons delayed the wake-sleep transition, caused multiple arousals from sleep, and reduced the homeostatic response to sleep deprivation. CycA is expressed in ~40 to 50 neurons in the adult brain, most of which are intermingled with circadian clock neurons, suggesting functional interactions among neurons controlling sleep and circadian behavior.
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