Conference Paper
Sleep deprivation evokes unique expression responses across independently evolved cavefish
McGaugh, S.E., Passow, C., Jaggard, J.B., Stahl, B. and Keene, A.
Record Number:
4320
Year:
2019
Journal:
AIM 2019
Pages:
70
Abstract:
Sleep deprivation affects nearly all aspects of an organism’s biology. Cavefish have repeatedly
evolved loss of total sleep relative to surface fish, sleeping only ⅛-1/4th as much as surface fish
over a 24h period. Here we implemented a relatively minor sleep deprivation treatment and
predicted that surface fish would produce a more extreme response in RNA expression than
cavefish. We ask whether 1) the cavefish of Asytanax mexicanus experience fewer differentially
expressed genes upon sleep deprivation treatment than their surface fish counterpart and 2)
whether different cavefish populations exhibit discordant gene expression responses to the same
sleep deprivation treatment. In contrast to our expectations, we found low transcriptional response
to the sleep deprivation treatment across most populations. While the sheer number of
differentially expressed genes was not greater for the surface population, the surface population
exhibits the highest number of uniquely differentially expressed genes than any other population
(84.5-86.5%), suggesting surface-specific responses to sleep deprivation. Population-specific
differentially expressed genes demonstrate unique expression responses to sleep deprivation
across independently evolved cavefish populations. While significant overlap in expression
responses between populations exists, 67-83% of differentially expressed genes are unique to
specific cave populations.
Times Cited:
1
Conference Name:
Astyanax Interrnational Meeting
Relevent Species: