Overview
- The Nature Communications paper published today provides the first characterization of sleep in sea anemones and detailed patterns in both cnidarian species.
- In laboratory settings and in the wild at Key Largo, Florida, the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea andromeda slept roughly eight hours mostly at night and took a short midday nap.
- The starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis slept about one-third of the day with rest concentrated around dawn.
- Sleep deprivation and DNA-damaging stressors increased neuronal DNA damage and sleep pressure, while melatonin treatment and increased sleep reduced damage.
- The results extend 2017 jellyfish findings and support the view that sleep emerged with neurons to maintain genome stability, a mechanism that still requires further testing across species.