An old concept of sleep, reworded, is that certain cells accumulated damage
as a result of normal activity, and that sleep may allow some repair of this
by shutting down cellular activity for a while. If this is true then this is
presumably only one of several strategies available.
I have had cause to think about this model recently because of a behavioural
mutant which I have isolated in Drosophila. It is initially less active, but
the rate of loss of activity with age is slower so that in late-middle age (6
weeks), it is more active than the wild type.
Do any netters have any thoughts on this?
Chris Driver
Chris Driver, Ph D
School of Biology and Chemistry, Rusden Campus
Deakin University
662 Blackburn Rd
Clayton, VIC, 3168
AUSTRALIA
