CAREER: FIRE lab investigation of stress-induced sleep in C. elegans

Despite the fundamental importance of sleep, the cellular function of sleep remains controversial. Sleep is recognized to be conserved across species, and in recent years sleep research has been extended to model organisms that provide powerful tools for genetic analysis. This project focuses on identification of genes and signaling pathways that control sleep behavior using the roundworm C. elegans as model organism. The principal investigator and her undergraduate students at California State University Northridge, a primarily undergraduate Hispanic-serving institution, have shown that exposure to environmental stresses can trigger sleep in C. elegans. Further, they demonstrated that stress-induced sleep is beneficial, and they have begun to identify several components of a genetic pathway that mediates this beneficial effect. This project expands on this work and illuminates the mechanism through which epidermal growth factor signaling contributes to stress-induced sleep. Additionally, the project uses cutting-edge molecular techniques to identify other genetic pathways critical in the regulation of stress-induced sleep. The broader impacts of this CAREER award include Full Immersion Research Experience (FIRE), a course the principal investigator redesigned with the goal of giving students an original research experience, and the integration of this lab course with the investigator's research program on sleep.