NEMURI protein tagged posts

To Sleep, perchance to Heal: Newly discovered Gene governs need for slumber when Sick

This is an image of a fruit that fly has been infected with bacteria, showing nemuri expression (green) in the brain — a single neuron and its projections on either side of the brain.
Credit: Amita Sehgal, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Science

Direct link between illness and the need for more sleep. Humans spend nearly one-third of their lives in slumber, yet sleep is still one of biology’s most enduring mysteries. Little is known about what genetic or molecular forces drive the need to sleep – until now. In a study of over 12,000 lines of fruit flies, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found a single gene, called nemuri, that increases the need for sleep. These findings are published today in Science.

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