Peripheral modulation of Pumilio in intestinal stem cells and the corpus allatum affects sleep latency in Drosophila

Abstract

While central circuits governing sleep are well-studied, the contribution of signaling from peripheral tissues remains a critical yet less understood aspect of sleep regulation. The highly conserved RNA-binding protein Pumilio (Pum) is a post-transcriptional regulator expressed in multiple tissues that influence systemic physiology, but its role in modulating basal sleep has not been established. Although Pumilios function in central neurons has been linked to sleep homeostasis following deprivation, whether it regulates sleep through peripheral mechanisms remains unknown. Here, we use conditional genetic tools in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to demonstrate that Pumilio acts in the intestinal stem cells (ISCs) and the endocrine corpus allatum (CA) to specifically regulate the transition to sleep. Reducing Pumilio function in either the ISCs or the CA independently and significantly accelerates nighttime sleep onset, while overexpression produces the opposite effect. This behavioral change is accompanied by widespread transcriptional alterations in the brain, characterized by a robust upregulation of genes involved in cellular stress responses, including Heat shock protein 83 (Hsp83). Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized gut-endocrine-brain signaling axis and identify peripheral post-transcriptional regulation as a key input to the central control of sleep behavior.