Journal article
The Drosophila TRPA channel, Painless, regulates sexual receptivity in virgin females
Genes, brain and behavior, Vol.8(5), pp.546-557
07/2009
DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2009.00503.x
PMCID: PMC2728068
PMID: 19531155
Abstract
Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels play crucial roles in sensory perception. Expression of the
Drosophila painless
(
pain
) gene, a homolog of the mammalian
TRPA1
/
ANKTM1
gene, in the peripheral nervous system is required for avoidance behavior of noxious heat or wasabi. Here we report a novel role of the Pain TRP channel expressed in the nervous system in the sexual receptivity in
Drosophila
virgin females. Compared with wild-type females,
pain
mutant females copulated with wild-type males significantly earlier. Wild-type males showed comparable courtship latency and courtship index toward wild-type and
pain
mutant females. Therefore, the early copulation observed in wild-type male and
pain
mutant female pairs is the result of enhanced sexual receptivity in
pain
mutant females. Involvement of
pain
in enhanced female sexual receptivity was confirmed by rescue experiments in which expression of a
pain
transgene in a
pain
mutant background restored the female sexual receptivity to the wild-type level. Targeted expression of
pain
RNAi in putative cholinergic or GABAergic neurons phenocopied the mutant phenotype of
pain
females. On the other hand, target expression of
pain
RNAi in dopaminergic neurons did not affect female sexual receptivity. In addition, conditional suppression of neurotransmission in putative GABAergic neurons resulted in a similar enhanced sexual receptivity. Our results suggest that Pain TRP channels expressed in cholinergic and/or GABAergic neurons are involved in female sexual receptivity.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Drosophila TRPA channel, Painless, regulates sexual receptivity in virgin females
- Creators
- Takaomi Sakai - Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, JapanJunko Kasuya - Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of AmericaToshihiro Kitamoto - Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of AmericaToshiro Aigaki - Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Genes, brain and behavior, Vol.8(5), pp.546-557
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2009.00503.x
- PMID
- 19531155
- PMCID
- PMC2728068
- NLM abbreviation
- Genes Brain Behav
- ISSN
- 1601-1848
- eISSN
- 1601-183X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2009
- Academic Unit
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Anesthesia; Neuroscience and Pharmacology
- Record Identifier
- 9984006489702771
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