Regulation of Drosophila oviduct muscle contractility by octopamine
Sonali A. Deshpande,
Ethan W. Rohrbach,
James D. Asuncion,
Jenna Harrigan,
Aditya Eamani,
Ellery H. Schlingmann,
Daniel J. Suto,
Pei-Tseng Lee,
Felix E. Schweizer,
Hugo J. Bellen,
David E. Krantz
Affiliations
Sonali A. Deshpande
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Ethan W. Rohrbach
Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
James D. Asuncion
Medical Scientist Training Program, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jenna Harrigan
Interdepartmental Program in Molecular Toxicology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Aditya Eamani
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Ellery H. Schlingmann
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Daniel J. Suto
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Pei-Tseng Lee
Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Felix E. Schweizer
Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Hugo J. Bellen
Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
David E. Krantz
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: Octopamine is essential for egg-laying in Drosophila melanogaster, but the neuronal pathways and receptors by which it regulates visceral muscles in the reproductive tract are not known. We find that the two octopamine receptors that have been previously implicated in egg-laying–OAMB and Octβ2R-are expressed in octopaminergic and glutamatergic neurons that project to the reproductive tract, peripheral ppk(+) neurons within the reproductive tract and epithelial cells that line the lumen of the oviducts. Further optogenetic and mutational analyses indicate that octopamine regulates both oviduct contraction and relaxation via Octβ2 and OAMB respectively. Interactions with glutamatergic pathways modify the effects of octopamine. Octopaminergic activation of Octβ2R on glutamatergic processes provides a possible mechanism by which octopamine initiates lateral oviduct contractions. We speculate that aminergic pathways in the oviposition circuit may be comparable to some of the mechanisms that regulate visceral muscle contractility in mammals.
