Neuropeptides in the nervous system of Drosophila and other insects: multiple roles as neuromodulators and neurohormones.

Drosophila neuropeptides in regulation of physiology and behavior

A review of neurohormone GPCRs present in the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster and the honey bee Apis mellifera.

Regulatory peptides were immunolocalized in the midgut of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Endocrine cells were found to produce six different peptides: allatostatins A, B and C, neuropeptide F, diuretic hormone 31, and the tachykinins. Small neuropeptide-F (sNPF) was found in neurons in the hypocerebral ganglion innervating the anterior midgut, whereas pigment-dispersing factor was found in nerves on the most posterior part of the posterior midgut. Neuropeptide-F (NPF)-producing endocrine cells were located in the anterior and middle midgut and in the very first part of the posterior midgut. All NPF endocrine cells also produced tachykinins. Endocrine cells containing diuretic hormone 31 were found in the caudal half of the posterior midgut; these cells also produced tachykinins. Other endocrine cells produced exclusively tachykinins in the anterior and posterior extemities of the midgut. Allatostatin-immunoreactive endocrine cells were present throughout the midgut. Those in the caudal half of the posterior midgut produced allatostatins A, whereas those in the anterior, middle, and first half of the posterior midgut produced allatostatin C. In the middle of the posterior midgut, some endocrine cells produced both allatostatins A and C. Allatostatin-C-immunoreactive endocrine cells were particularly prominent in the first half of the posterior midgut. Allatostatin B/MIP-immunoreactive cells were not consistently found and, when present, were only weakly immunoreactive, forming a subgroup of the allatostatin-C-immunoreactive cells in the posterior midgut. Previous work on Drosophila and other insect species suggested that (FM)RFamide-immunoreactive endocrine cells in the insect midgut could produce NPF, sNPF, myosuppressin, and/or sulfakinins. Using a combination of specific antisera to these peptides and transgenic fly models, we showed that the endocrine cells in the adult Drosophila midgut produced exclusively NPF. Although the Drosophila insulin gene Ilp3 was abundantly expressed in the midgut, Ilp3 was not expressed in endocrine cells, but in midgut muscle.

Regulatory peptides in fruit fly midgut

Peptidomics of the larval Drosophila melanogaster central nervous system.

http://directory.umm.ac.id/Data%20Elmu/jurnal/J-g/Journal%20of%20Insect%20Physiology/Vol46.Issue9.Sept2000/970.pdf

Sulfakinins reduce food intake in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.

Newly discovered functions for some myotropic neuropeptides in locusts.

Summary RH5849 is a benzoyl hydrazine analog which has been reported to mimic several effects of the arthropod steroid hormone ecdysone to which it is chemically totally unrelated. In adult Diptera, ecdysone is the hormone that triggers vitellogenin synthesis. We report here that RH5849, upon oral ingestion, is able to induce vitellogenin synthesis in male Drosophila, Neobellieria, Phormia and Lucilia. This contrasts to data in the literature which showed that RH5849 could not mimic the pupariation-inducing effect of ecdysone in last instar fly larvae. RH5849 neither exerts a juvenile hormone mimicking effect nor behaves as an anti-juvenile hormone in both the Colorado potato beetle and Galleria.

Zhu Wei

Papers

Sulfakinins reduce food intake in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.

Newly discovered functions for some myotropic neuropeptides in locusts.

The ecdysoid RH5849 induces yolk polypeptide synthesis in male flies