Abstract

Orcokinin neuropeptides are conserved among ecdysozoans, but their functions are incompletely understood. Here, we report a role for orcokinin neuropeptides in the regulation of sleep in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The C. elegans orcokinin peptides, which are encoded by the nlp-14 and nlp-15 genes, are necessary and sufficient for quiescent behaviors during developmentally timed sleep (DTS) as well as during stress-induced sleep (SIS). The five orcokinin neuropeptides encoded by nlp-14 have distinct but overlapping functions in the regulation of movement and defecation quiescence during SIS. We suggest that orcokinins may regulate behavioral components of sleep-like states in nematodes and other ecdysozoans.

摘要

Orcokinin 神经肽在蜕皮动物中是保守的，但它们的功能尚不完全清楚。在这里，我们报告了 orcokinin 神经肽在调节线虫秀丽隐杆线虫睡眠中的作用。在秀丽隐杆线虫orcokinin肽，其由编码NLP-14和NLP-15的基因，是必要的和发育定时睡眠（DTS）中足够用于静态行为以及应激诱导的睡眠（SIS）中。由nlp-14编码的五种 orcokinin 神经肽在 SIS 期间，在调节运动和排便静止方面具有不同但重叠的功能。我们认为 orcokinins 可能调节线虫和其他蜕皮动物的睡眠样状态的行为成分。