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Abstract

Sleep is a unique physiological state, which is behaviorally defined,
and is broadly conserved across species from mammals to invertebrates
such as insects. Because of the experimental accessibility provided by
various novel animal models including the fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster, there have been significant advances in the understanding
of sleep. Although the physiological functions of sleep have not been
fully elucidated, accumulating evidence indicates that sleep is
necessary to maintain the plasticity of neuronal circuits and, hence,
is essential in learning and memory. Calcineurin (Cn) is a
heterodimeric phosphatase composed of CnA and CnB subunits and known to
function in memory consolidation in the mammalian brain, but its
neurological functions in the fruit fly are largely unknown. Here, we
show that Cn is an important regulator of sleep in Drosophila. A
pan-neuronal RNA interference-mediated knockdown of Cn expression
resulted in sleep loss, whereas misexpression of the constitutively
active form of a CnA protein led to increased sleep. Furthermore, CnA
knockdown also impaired the retention of aversive olfactory memory.
These results indicate a role for Cn and calcium-dependent signal
transduction in sleep and memory regulation and may bring insight into
the relationship between them.