An EGFR Circuit Mechanism for Stress-Induced Sleep| Curr. Biol., Dec. 12, 2019 (Vol. 30, Issue 1)

After stress, EGFR directly activates two neurons in C. elegans, the drowsiness neuron ALA and the sleep-active neuron RIS that induces sleep bouts. ALA acts as an activator of RIS. Thus, the RIS neuron is activated by a combined parallel and series EGFR circuit to increase sleep following stress.

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J. Konietzka, M. Fritz, S. Spiri, R. McWhirter, A. Leha, S. Palumbos, W.S. Costa, A. Oranth, A. Gottschalk, D.M. Miller III, et al. (2019). Epidermal Growth Factor Signaling Promotes Sleep through a Combined Series and Parallel Neural Circuit. Curr. Biol. 30.

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