Topic: dorsal fan-shaped body neurons

Voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels couple with cytoplasmic ß-subunits (Kvß) that exhibit aldo-keto reductase (AKR) activity. Kvß subunits typically have exceptionally low catalytic turnover making them slow substrate converters. This poses a conundrum: why would an ion channel be shackled with a subpar enzyme? The AKR activity is crucial in Drosophila sleep regulation in dorsal fan-shaped body neurons (dFBN) where the Kv1 family member, Shaker, is paired with the ß-subunit Hyperkinetic. We show that its low catalytic turnover permits Hyperkinetic to monitor and integrate cumulative oxidativ

Sleep is vital, but its benefits are unknown. One hypothesis posits that sleep is an antioxidant defence mechanism. Indeed, reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been shown to accumulate during prolonged waking, and experimentally increasing the ROS load of the brain induces sleep. In Drosophila melanogaster, a crucial ROS sensor in sleep-promoting dorsal fan-shaped body neurons (dFBNs) is the β-subunit, termed Hyperkinetic (Hk), of the voltage-gated potassium channel Shaker. Oxidation of a stably bound NADPH cofactor causes conformational changes in the channel, which increase dFBN activity. dFB

Sleep is a crucial part of everyday life, but the neural networks that regulate behavioural manifestations of sleep are not fully understood. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, dorsal fan-shaped body neurons (dFBNs) sit at the centre of homeostatic sleep control: the neurons’ excitability increases with sleep drive, and their artificial activation induces sleep. Despite significant advances in understanding of the molecular events that regulate the activity of dFBNs, insight into how they impose sleep on the organism is still lagging. By combining optogenetics and in vivo patch-clamp re