The amnesiac gene is involved in the regulation of thermal nociception in Drosophila melanogaster

Benjamin T Aldrich; Junko Kasuya; Matthew Faron; Hiroshi Ishimoto; Toshihiro Kitamoto

doi:10.3109/01677060903419751

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The amnesiac gene is involved in the regulation of thermal nociception in Drosophila melanogaster

Journal article

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The amnesiac gene is involved in the regulation of thermal nociception in Drosophila melanogaster

Benjamin T Aldrich, Junko Kasuya, Matthew Faron, Hiroshi Ishimoto and Toshihiro Kitamoto

Journal of neurogenetics, Vol.24(1), pp.33-41

03/2010

DOI: 10.3109/01677060903419751

PMCID: PMC3032918

PMID: 19995327

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3032918View

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Abstract

Nociception is a mechanism fundamental to the ability of animals to avoid noxious stimuli capable of causing serious tissue damage. It has been established that in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster , the transient receptor potential (TRP) channel encoded by the painless gene ( pain ) is required for detecting thermal and mechanical noxious stimuli. Little is known, however, about other genetic components that control nociceptive behaviors in Drosophila . The amnesiac gene ( amn ), which encodes a putative neuropeptide precursor, is important for stabilizing olfactory memory, and is involved in various aspects of other associative and non-associative learning. Previous studies have indicated that amn also regulates ethanol sensitivity and sleep. Here we show that amn plays an additional critical role in nociception. Our data show that amn mutant larvae and adults are significantly less responsive to noxious heat stimuli (> ~ 40 °C) than their wild-type counterparts. The phenotype of amn mutants in thermal nociception, which closely resembles that of pain mutants, was phenocopied in flies expressing amn RNAi, and this phenotype was rescued by the expression of a wild-type amn transgene. Our results provide compelling evidence that amn is a novel genetic component of the mechanism that regulates thermal nociception in Drosophila .

Invertebrate

painless

GAL4

RNA interference

neuropeptide

UAS

memory gene

Details

Title: Subtitle: The amnesiac gene is involved in the regulation of thermal nociception in Drosophila melanogaster
Creators: Benjamin T Aldrich - Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Junko Kasuya - Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Matthew Faron - Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Hiroshi Ishimoto - Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Toshihiro Kitamoto - Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of neurogenetics, Vol.24(1), pp.33-41
DOI: 10.3109/01677060903419751
PMID: 19995327
PMCID: PMC3032918
NLM abbreviation: J Neurogenet
ISSN: 0167-7063
eISSN: 1563-5260
Language: English
Date published: 03/2010
Academic Unit: Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Anesthesia; Neuroscience and Pharmacology; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Record Identifier: 9984006364802771

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