Visual mutations reveal opposing effects of illumination on arousal in Drosophila

Influence of the White locus on the courtship behavior of Drosophila males

Since its discovery by Morgan, the Drosophila white gene has become one of the most intensely studied genes and has been widely used as a genetic marker. Earlier reports that over- and misexpression of White protein in Drosophila males leads to male-male courtship implicated white in courtship control. While previous studies suggested that it is the mislocalization of White protein within cells that causes the courtship phenotype, we demonstrate here that also the lack of extra-retinal White can cause very similar behavioral changes. Moreover, we provide evidence that the lack of White function increases the sexual arousal of males in general, of which the enhanced male-male courtship might be an indirect effect. We further show that white mutant flies are not only optomotor blind but also dazzled by the over-flow of light in daylight. Implications of these findings for the proper interpretation of behavioral studies with white mutant flies are discussed.

Drosophila social clustering is disrupted by anesthetics and in narrow abdomen ion channel mutants

Members of many species tend to congregate, a behavioral strategy known as local enhancement. Selective advantages of local enhancement range from efficient use of resources to defense from predators. While previous studies have examined many types of social behavior in fruit flies, few have specifically investigated local enhancement. Resource-independent local enhancement (RILE) has recently been described in the fruit fly using a measure called social space index (SSI), although the neural mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we analyze RILE of Drosophila under conditions that allow us to elucidate its neural mechanisms. We have investigated the effects of general volatile anesthetics, compounds that compromise higher order functioning of the type typically required for responding to social cues. We exposed Canton-S flies to non-immobilizing concentrations of halothane and found that flies had a significantly decreased SSI compared with flies tested in air. Narrow abdomen (na) mutants, which display altered responses to anesthetics in numerous behavioral assays, also have a significantly reduced SSI, an effect that was fully reversed by restoring expression of na by driving a UAS-NA rescue construct with NA-GAL4. We found that na expression in cholinergic neurons fully rescued the behavioral defect, whereas expression of na in glutamatergic neurons did so only partially. Our results also suggest a role for na expression in the mushroom bodies (MBs), as suppressing na expression in the MBs of NA-GAL4 rescue flies diminishes SSI. Our data indicate that RILE, a simple behavioral strategy, requires complex neural processing.

Genetic effects in Drosophila on the potency of diverse general anesthetics: a distinctive pattern of altered sensitivity

Mutations that influence the sensitivity of an organism to a volatile general anesthetic can be divided into two classes. In one, sensitivity to all other volatile agents is affected to a similar degree. Although this class may contain mutations of interest for understanding anesthesia, it is also likely to contain mutations that merely alter general health. In the second class, mutations confer non-uniform effects on potency (NEP), i.e., larger effects for some volatile anesthetics than for others. Members of this class are of special interest for studies of arousal and its pharmacological suppression because they not only avoid the pitfall of effects on global health, but also imply the existence of drug targets that are preferentially affected by particular agents. In this work, we provide the first systematic investigation of the relative frequency and diversity of NEP mutations in Drosophila. As a first step, we isolated and characterized a set of P element insertion mutations that confer altered sensitivity of the fruit fly to the clinical anesthetic halothane. Then we tested the members of this collection for their effect on the sensitivity of flies to five other volatile agents. Not only do we find that most of the mutations show non-uniform effects, they also share a characteristic arrangement of altered potencies (halothane > >desflurane >or= enflurane approximately isoflurane approximately methoxyflurane > sevoflurane). From this result, although we do not know how direct or indirect are the effects of the mutations, we infer the existence of a biologically relevant target for anesthetic action that has a distinct preference for halothane over other agents. Intriguingly, P element insertions that co-map with several NEP loci have been shown to alter the fly's response to cocaine and ethanol, suggesting that common genetic elements are involved in the response to all three drugs.

Impact of gene copy number variation on anesthesia in Drosophila melanogaster

BACKGROUND

Chromosomal deletions and duplications, which result in halving or doubling of copy number in a block of genes, are an important source of variation between individuals. Phenotypic effects of copy number variation are commonly observed, but effects on sensitivity to volatile anesthetics have not been assessed in any organism.

METHODS

The potency with which halothane depresses the righting reflex of fruit flies was measured in congenic Drosophila strains, each of which was heterozygous for a deletion of average size 400 kb. Over 200 strains were examined, thereby scanning approximately half of the fly genome.

RESULTS

Although the vast majority of deletion heterozygotes were indistinguishable from the control, eight had significantly altered sensitivity to halothane. Genetic tests supported the hypothesis that the change in anesthetic sensitivity was the result of reduction in copy number and not adventitious mutations in the strains. Among the eight outliers, the difference in halothane potency ranged from a 25% increase to a 15% decrease. Changes of similar magnitude but distinctive patterns were found when these lines were tested with enflurane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane.

CONCLUSIONS

Variation in gene copy number has a significant impact on anesthetic sensitivity in Drosophila melanogaster. The level of transcription of a few genes must thus be limiting for a normal response to volatiles. Coupling between gene copy and gene expression is universal, and the components of the fly's nervous system are highly conserved; therefore, this work provides a rationale for investigating the clinical impact of copy number variation.