Receptor mechanisms in fish chromatophores--VI. Adenosine receptors mediate pigment dispersion in guppy and catfish melanophores

Exploring the mechanisms and impacts of melatonin on fish colouration

The pineal hormone melatonin is a multi-functional molecule with a recognized role in pigment aggregation in chromatophores, mediating its actions through binding to subtypes of its specific receptors. Since its discovery, melatonin has been known to be responsible for pigment aggregation towards the cell centre in fishes, including their embryos, as an adaptation to reduced light and thus results in pale body colouration. Diversity exists in the sensitivity of melanophores towards melatonin at interspecies, intraspecific levels, seasons, and amongst chromatophores at different regions of the animal body. In most of the fishes, melatonin leads to their skin paling at night. It is indicated that the melatonin receptors have characteristically maintained to show the same aggregating effects in fishes and other vertebrates in the evolutionary hierarchy. However, besides this aggregatory effect, melatonin is also responsible for pigment dispersion in certain fishes. Here is the demand in our review to explore further the nature of the dispersive behaviour of melatonin through the so-called β-melatonin receptors. It is clear that the pigment translocations in lower vertebrates under the effect of melatonin are mediated through the melatonin receptors coupled with other hormonal receptors as well. Therefore, being richly supplied with a variety of receptors, chromatophores and melanocytes can be used as in vitro test models for pharmacological applications of known and novel drugs. In this review, we present diverse effects of melatonin on chromatophores of fishes in particular with appropriate implications on most of the recent findings.

Adenosine A1, but not A2, receptor blockade increases anxiety and arousal in Zebrafish

Adenosinergic systems have been implicated in anxiety-like states, as caffeine can induce a state of anxiety in human beings. Caffeine is an antagonist at A(1) and A(2) adenosine receptors but it remains unclear whether anxiety is mediated by one or both of these. As the adenosinergic system is rather conserved, we opted to pursue these questions using zebrafish, a widely used model organism in genetics and developmental biology. Zebrafish adenosine 1. 2A.1 and 2A.2 receptors conserve histidine residues in TM6 and TM7 that are responsible for affinity in bovine A1 receptor. We investigated the effects of caffeine, PACPX (an A(1) receptor antagonist) and 1,3-dimethyl-1-propargylxanthine (DMPX) (an A(2) receptor antagonist) on anxiety-like behaviour and locomotor activity of zebrafish in the scototaxis test as well as evaluated the effects of these drugs on pigment aggregation. Caffeine increased anxiety at the dose of 100 mg/kg, while locomotion at the dose of 10 mg/kg was increased. Both doses of 10 and 100 mg/kg induced pigment aggregation. PACPX, on the other hand, increased anxiety at a dose of 6 mg/kg and induced pigment aggregation at the doses of 0.6 and 6 mg/kg, but did not produce a locomotor effect. DMPX, in turn, increased locomotion at the dose of 6 mg/kg but did not produce any effect on pigment aggregation or anxiety-like behaviour. These results indicate that blockade of A(1)-R, but not A(2)-R, induces anxiety and autonomic arousal, while the blockade of A(2)-R induces hyperlocomotion. Thus, as in rodents, caffeine's anxiogenic and arousing effects are probably mediated by A(1) receptors in zebrafish and its locomotor activating effect is probably mediated by A(2) receptors.

Beta2-adrenoceptors mediate melanosome dispersion in winter flounder (Pleuronectes americanus))

Although the melanosome-aggregating mediation of catecholamines through alpha -adrenoceptors is well established for teleost melanophores, the regulation of the dispersive process is not as clearly understood. The melanosome-aggregating effect of high concentrations of catecholamines in vitro is reversed at low concentrations with melanophores of the winter flounder, Pleuronectes americanus. In vitro incubation in low concentrations of isoproterenol ( <<= 10-7 M) and noradrenaline ( <<= 10-8 M) enhances Na + -induced melanosome dispersion in balanced salt solution, which can be depressed by propranolol (10-4 M), indicating beta -adrenoceptor mediation in pigment dispersion. The subtype of this adrenoceptor appears to be the beta 2 conformation, since the beta 2-adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline (>=>3.15 times 10-6 M) reverses the melanosome-aggregating effect associated with higher concentrations of noradrenaline and with electrical stimulation. It is concluded that in this species there is adrenergic neuronal control of melanosome aggregation through alpha -adrenoceptors on release of noradrenaline and of dispersion through beta 2-adrenoceptors during a subsequent decrease in concentration.

Reactivated melanophore motility: differential regulation and nucleotide requirements of bidirectional pigment granule transport

To study the molecular basis for organized pigment granule transport, procedures were developed to lyse melanophores of Tilapia mossambica under conditions in which pigment granule movements could be reactivated. Gentle lysis of the melanophores resulted in a permeabilized cell model, which, in the absence of exogenous ATP, could undergo multiple rounds of pigment granule aggregation and dispersion when sequentially challenged with epinephrine and cAMP. Both directions of transport required ATP, since aggregation or dispersion in melanophores depleted of nucleotides could be reactivated only upon addition of MgATP or MgATP plus cAMP, respectively. Differences between the nucleotide sensitivities for aggregation and dispersion were demonstrated by observations that aggregation had a lower apparent Km for ATP than did dispersion and could be initiated at a lower ATP concentration. Moreover, aggregation could be initiated by ADP, but only dispersion could be reactivated by the thiophosphate ATP analog, ATP gamma S. The direction of pigment transport was determined solely by cAMP, since pigment granules undergoing dispersion reaggregated when cAMP was removed, and those undergoing aggregation dispersed when cAMP was added. These results provide evidence that pigment granule motility may be based on two distinct mechanisms that are differentially activated and regulated to produce bidirectional movements.