Dr. Bruce Wightman reeled in an overwhelming number of students, professors, and biology enthusiasts with his talk about his charming nematodes, Caenorhabditis elegans. Dr. Wightman’s experiment involved genetically analyzing a new sleep circuit in C. elegans. He initiated a discussion about a topic all college students can relate to: sleep. Animals (including humans) love to sleep, but why? Because it allows time for the brain to clear of any toxins, to produce new cells, and to consolidate new memories. Introducing his work, Dr. Wightman familiarized his audience about the glamorous and underappreciated C. elegans. The nematode, C. elegans, is the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced. This phenomenal organism has simply
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (2007), if one does not receive an adequate amount of sleep one may become sleep deprived, one’s health may decline, the immune system may be compromised, and the ability to learn or complete tasks may become impaired. The question evoked from this necessity is, why do we sleep? Psychologists typically take two stances concerning this controversy: an adaptive stance or a restorative stance. While psychologists are still not certain on the answer, both the restorative and adaptive approaches have strong evidence of truth and actuality. Supporters of the adaptive theory of sleep believe that sleep is a result of evolution (Ciccarelli, 2015, p. 141).
Some genes, including damage-inducing ones involved in stress reactions, were amplified.” “ 30% of civilian adults in the U.S. say they get six or fewer hours of sleep. That suggests that millions of people might be sustaining damage to their bodies.” (16). In order to get enough sleep, Brown demonstrates in the article that we can not drink beverages with caffeine. “But caffeine “gums up the signal” that tells the brain when it need more sleep, fooling people into thinking that they’re getting plenty of rest, Czeisler said.”(19). Some researchers did some test. For example, “Further analysis revealed that genes involved in inflammation, immunity and protein damage were activated, suggested that tissue harm was occurring after sleep deprivation. Many of the down-regulated genes, in contrast, were involved in producing new protein, cells and tissues. The balanced process of tissue renewal seemed to be disrupted by insufficient
In this project, C. Elegans are hermaphrodite worms that will be used since they are easy to maintain in lab, as well as have short life cycles. The gene that the project attempted to knockdown in C. Elegans with RNAi treatment is the unc-22 gene. RNAi disrupts gene expression in the presence of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) that is complementary to target gene sequence. The unc-22 gene codes for a muscle protein called twitchin in wild-type worms. The Unc-22 is required for muscle regulation and maintenance in C.Elegans. To verify that the RNAi treatment worked, would check the unc-22 mRNA levels in the worms, in addition to phenotype observation.
Sometimes I think that sleeping isn’t important because I thought that sleep wouldn’t help your body. Well I was wrong to say that because it does help your body. The amount of sleep you get each day impacts over the course of your life. I was asked if sleep had a huge impact on your health. Well my answer is yes it does have a huge impact. Some people don’t have enough hours of sleep, some have too much, and some don’t know how much their suppose to sleep. Despite the fact that some people think that sleep isn’t important, I’m going to prove that sleep is important
Sleep is a beautiful thing, but people do not get enough of it. It is a time for the body to rejuvenate and process the events of the day. Sleeping is something that we seek out. Getting the recommended amount of sleep allows our body to function properly the next day. Without it, there could be detrimental consequences. The National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that without sleep, neurons could be “polluted with byproducts”. In severe cases, people who get very little sleep often experience mood swings, hallucinations and cells do not continue to reproduce.
One part of this article that I think is irrelevant is paragraph five. “Scientists have long puzzled over the purpose of sleep.” doesn’t relate to the topic of what genetic consequences sleep deprivation has. One thing I would clarify, is what changes were they looking for in the RNA (paragraph eleven). Another thing I would prefer to be explained is if being sleep deprived can make us have a petulant behavior and/or if it can affect the way we
Oswald’s study on the restoration theory of sleep attempts to explain why animals sleep. Oswald suggests that sleep is the time when the body removes waste, replenishes its levels of neurotransmitters in preparation for the next day and carries out repairs to damaged cells and growth could occur. In regards to Oswald NREM is a time for replenishing the body , especially stages 3 and 4 which occur at the start of the night when the body is the most tired. During stages 3 and 4 we secrete greater levels of growth hormone in the blood which helps in the repair process, seeming to offer support to his theory.
Please use your own words. Any direct quote would result in an automatic zero for the pertaining question.
The relative amount of REM sleep in other mammals exhibits in connection with their level of development at birth also supports the idea that REM sleep must aid in development. (1) Typically, animals born relatively mature, such as dolphins, giraffes, and guinea pigs, demonstrate low-amounts of REM sleep, while animals born relatively immature, such as ferrets, armadillos, and platypuses, exhibit higher levels of REM sleep. (3) Humans fall in between the spectrum of amounts of REM sleep with platypuses having the most REM sleep and some species of dolphin and whale exhibiting none. (3)
It is no secret that, similar to other animals, sleep is one of the most important things for a human being’s overall health. According to Watson and Breedlove, there are four main biological/neurological functions of sleep: energy conservation—the body uses less energy when it is asleep through what is called slow-wave sleep (SWS) by doing things such as reducing body temperature and slowing respiration; niche adaptation—the environmental happenings to which organisms are adapted to; body restoration—it restores materials used during awake hours; and memory consolidation—SWS and REM sleep help the brain consolidate memories from the previous day (2012).
You may know that the human brain consists of around 100 billion neurons. You may also know that it consists of ten times that many glial cells. What makes the brain fascinating, however, has little to do with the elements that comprise it. 50% of our genes define the intricate design of the brain; the organization of the other 98% of the body is described by just the other half of our genes, which speaks to the significance of the brain in making us who we are. Such facts are a microcosm of my fascination with the brain,
normal counterparts. These findings have led to a robust exploration in the science of sleep
Caenorhabditi elegans?has become an important organism in which to study processes that go awry in human diseases since over 50 yeas ago when Sydney Brenner had the foresight to develop the nematode (round worm)?Caenorhabditis elegans?as a genetic model for understanding questions of developmental biology and neurobiology. There are several attractive features that make Caenorhabditi elegans?an ideal organism for the study of gene regulation and function. First of all, C. elegans is a eukaryote, which means that it shares cellular and molecular structures and control pathways with higher organisms. At least 38% of the C. elegans protein-coding genes have predicted orthologous in the human genome,
Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the
The first introduction of Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) was in the early 1960s, by Sydney Brenner who used it as a model system to explore the genetics dissections of development, neurobiology and behaviour; he won the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work on C.elegans. The C.elegans model specialises in having a short life span, retaining a low maintenance cost and its ability to grow the organism in a large population, and a small concern for animal rights issues. Each of these features is a key part to the power of C.elegans being used as a tool for understanding the functional genomics of diseases.