Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Mutations in shaking-B prevent electrical synapse formation in the Drosophila giant fiber system

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Phelan, Pauline, Nakagawa, Madoka, Wilkin, Marian B., Moffat, Kevin G., O'Kane, Cahir J. and Bacon, J. P. (Jonathan P.) (1996) Mutations in shaking-B prevent electrical synapse formation in the Drosophila giant fiber system. Journal of Neuroscience, Vol.16 (No.3). pp. 1101-1113.

[img] PDF
WRAP_Moffatt_mutations_in_Shaking-B.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (10Mb)
Official URL: http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/short/16/3/11...

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

The giant fiber system (GFS) is a simple network of neurons that mediates visually elicited escape behavior in Drosophila. The giant fiber (GF), the major component of the system, is a large, descending interneuron that relays visual stimuli to the motoneurons that innervate the tergotrochanteral jump muscle (TTM) and dorsal longitudinal flight muscles (DLMs). Mutations in the neural transcript from the shaking-B locus abolish the behavioral response by disrupting transmission at some electrical synapses in the GFS. This study focuses on the role of the gene in the development of the synaptic connections. Using an enhancer-trap line that expresses lacZ in the GFs, we show that the neurons develop during the first 30 hr of metamorphosis. Within the next 15 hr, they begin to form electrical synapses, as indicated by the transfer of intracellularly injected Lucifer yellow. The GFs dye-couple to the TTM motoneuron between 30 and 45 hr of metamorphosis, to the peripherally synapsing interneuron that drives the DLM motoneurons at approximately 48 hr, and to giant commissural interneurons in the brain at approximately 55 hr. Immunocytochemistry with shaking-B peptide antisera demonstrates that the expression of shaking-B protein in the region of GFS synapses coincides temporally with the onset of synaptogenesis; expression persists thereafter. The mutation shak-B2, which eliminates protein expression, prevents the establishment of dye coupling shaking-B, therefore, is essential for the assembly and/or maintenance of functional gap junctions at electrical synapses in the GFS.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Q Science > QL Zoology
R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions: Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) > Biological Sciences ( -2010)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Drosophila -- Physiology, Synapses, Gap junctions (Cell biology), Neurons -- Physiology, Startle reaction
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
ISSN: 0270-6474
Official Date: 1 February 1996
Dates:
DateEvent
1 February 1996Published
Volume: Vol.16
Number: No.3
Page Range: pp. 1101-1113
Status: Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version: Open Access
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (BBSRC), Wellcome Trust (London, England)
Grant number: 034310:2:91/Z (Wellcome)

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us