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Updated: Mar 12, 2026
Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila
Published on: September 28, 2010
TfAP-2 is required for night sleep in Drosophila
Mariya M Kucherenko1, Vinodh Ilangovan2, Bettina Herzig3
1Max Planck Research Group Gene Expression and Signaling, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
Background:
The AP-2 transcription factor APTF-1 is crucially required for developmentally controlled sleep behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans larvae. Its human ortholog, TFAP-2beta, causes Char disease and has also been linked to sleep disorders. These data suggest that AP-2 transcription factors may be highly conserved regulators of various types of sleep behavior. Here, we tested the idea that AP-2 controls adult sleep in Drosophila.
Results:
Drosophila has one AP-2 ortholog called TfAP-2, which is essential for viability. To investigate its potential role in sleep behavior and neural development, we specifically downregulated TfAP-2 in the nervous system. We found that neuronal TfAP-2 knockdown almost completely abolished night sleep but did not affect day sleep. TfAP-2 insufficiency affected nervous system development. Conditional TfAP-2 knockdown in the adult also produced a modest sleep phenotype, suggesting that TfAP-2 acts both in larval as well as in differentiated neurons.
Conclusions:
Thus, our results show that AP-2 transcription factors are highly conserved regulators of development and sleep.
