Sleep drive reconfigures wake-promoting clock circuitry to regulate adaptive behavior

Circadian rhythms help animals synchronize motivated behaviors to match environmental demands. Recent evidence indicates that clock neurons influence the timing of behavior by differentially altering the activity of a distributed network of downstream neurons. Downstream circuits can be remodeled by Hebbian plasticity, synaptic scaling, and, under some circumstances, activity-dependent addition of cell surface receptors; the role of this receptor respecification phenomena is not well studied. We demonstrate that high sleep pressure quickly reprograms the wake-promoting large ventrolateral clock neurons to express the pigment dispersing factor receptor (PDFR). The addition of this signaling input into the circuit is associated with increased waking and early mating success. The respecification of PDFR in both young and adult large ventrolateral neurons requires 2 dopamine (DA) receptors and activation of the transcriptional regulator nejire (cAMP response element-binding protein [CREB]). These data identify receptor respecification as an important mechanism to sculpt circuit function to match sleep levels with demand.