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| Sleep and circadian behaviour in insects | ||||||||||||||||||
Insects, especially the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, provide powerful model systems to probe the mechanisms that regulate sleep behaviour in animals. It is surprising to many students that the quiescent periods displayed by fruit flies are similar to the sleep states of mammals in respect to circadian and homeostatic regulation, arousal threshold, age-related sleep fragmentation and the involvement of biogenic amine and neuropeptide signalling pathways. This project will exploit the tools available for studying behaviour in Drosophila to understand the mechanisms of sleep and how the wake-sleep cycle is regulated in adult flies. The student will use Trikinetics monitors to collect sleep/activity data for different strains of fruit flies under different environmental conditions. The project will look at reproductive and evolutionary aspects of sleep in fruit flies isolated from various geographical locations throughout the world to determine the importance of sleep for reproductive success and fitness. Isaac, R.E.; Johnson, E.C.; Audsley N.; Shirras A.D. Metabolic inactivation of the circadian transmitter, pigment dispersing factor (PDF), by neprilysin-like peptidases in Drosophila Journal of Experimental Biology 210, pp.4465 - 4470, (2007) Walker M.J.; Rylett C.M.; Keen J.N.; Audsley N.; Sajid M.; Shirras A.D.; Isaac, R.E. Proteomic identification of Drosophila melanogaster male accessory gland proteins, including a pro-cathepsin and a soluble gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase. Proteome Science 4, pp.9, (2006) Thomas J.E.; Rylett C.M.; Carhan, A.; Bland N.D.; Bingham R.J.; Shirras A.D.; Turner, A.J.; Isaac R.E., Drosophila melanogaster NEP2 is a new soluble member of the neprilysin family of endopeptidases with implications for reproduction and renal function. Biochemical Journal, 386, pp.357 - 366, 2005 Isaac RE, Taylor CA, Hamasaka Y, Nassel DR, Shirras AD. Proctolin in the post-genomic era: new insights and challenges. Invertebrate Neuroscience. 2004 Oct;5(2):51-64. Taylor C.A.M.; Winther A.M.E.; Siviter R.J.; Shirras A.D.; Isaac, R.E.; Nassel D.R., Identification of a proctolin preprohormone gene (Proct) of Drosophila melanogaster: expression and predicted prohormone processing Journal of Neurobiology, 58, pp.379 - 391, 2004. Winther AM, Siviter RJ, Isaac RE, Predel R, Nassel DR.(2002)J Comp Neurol. Sep 15;464(2):180-96. Neuronal expression of tachykinin-related peptides and gene transcript during postembryonic development of Drosophila. Brooks D.R.; Hooper, N.M.; Isaac R.E., The Caenorhabditis elegans orthologue of mammalian puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase has roles in embryogenesis and reproduction Journal of Biological Chemistry, 278, pp.42795-42801, 2003. Hurst, D.; Rylett, C.M.; Isaac, R.E.; Shirras, A.D., The Drosophila angiotensin-converting enzyme homologue Ance is required for spermiogenesis Developmental Biology, 254, pp.238-247, 2003 Winther AM, Siviter RJ, Isaac RE, Predel R, Nassel DR.(2002)J Comp Neurol. Sep 15;464(2):180-96. Neuronal expression of tachykinin-related peptides and gene transcript during postembryonic development of Drosophila. Hurst D, Rylett CM, Isaac RE, Shirras AD.(2003): Dev Biol. 2003 Feb 15;254(2):238-47 The drosophila angiotensin-converting enzyme homologue Ance is required for spermiogenesis. |
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Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 Results
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