Dopamine neurons promote arousal and wakefulness via the DopR receptor in the Drosophila mushroom body

Neural circuits involved in regulation of sleep play a critical role in sleep-wake transition and ability of an organism to engage in other behaviors critical for survival. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful system for the study of sleep and circuit mechanisms underlying sleep and co-regulation of sleep with other behaviors. In Drosophila, two neuropils in the central brain, mushroom body (MB) and central complex (CX) have been shown to influence sleep homeostasis and receive neuromodulator input critical to sleep-wake switch. Dopamine neurons (DANs) are the primary neuromodulator inputs to the MB but the mechanisms by which they regulate sleep- and wake-promoting neurons within MB are unknown. Here we investigate the role of subsets of DANs that signal wakefulness and project to wake-promoting compartments of the MB. We find that inhibition of specific subsets of PAM and PPL1 DANs projecting to the MB increase sleep in the presence of strong wake-inducing stimuli that reduces GABA transmission, although activity of these neurons is not directly modulated by GABA signaling. Of these subsets we find that DANs innervating the {gamma}5 and {beta}2 MB compartments require both DopR1 and DopR2 receptors located in downstream Kenyon cells and mushroom body output neurons (MBONs). Further, we report that unlike the activity of wake-promoting MBONs and KCs, whose activity is modulated by sleep-need and PAM-DAN activity is independent of sleep-need. We have characterized a dopamine mediated sleep-circuit providing an inroad into understanding how common circuits within MB regulate sleep, wakefulness and behavioral arousal.