TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koenig, Sebastian
A1  - Wolf, Reinhard
A1  - Heisenberg, Martin
T1  - Visual Attention in Flies-Dopamine in the Mushroom Bodies Mediates the After-Effect of Cueing
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Visual environments may simultaneously comprise stimuli of different significance. Often such stimuli require incompatible responses. Selective visual attention allows an animal to respond exclusively to the stimuli at a certain location in the visual field. In the process of establishing its focus of attention the animal can be influenced by external cues. Here we characterize the behavioral properties and neural mechanism of cueing in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. A cue can be attractive, repulsive or ineffective depending upon (e.g.) its visual properties and location in the visual field. Dopamine signaling in the brain is required to maintain the effect of cueing once the cue has disappeared. Raising or lowering dopamine at the synapse abolishes this after-effect. Specifically, dopamine is necessary and sufficient in the αβ-lobes of the mushroom bodies. Evidence is provided for an involvement of the αβ\(_{posterior}\) Kenyon cells.
KW  - dopamine transporters
KW  - Drosophila melanogaster
KW  - synapses
KW  - dopaminergics
KW  - dopamine
KW  - sensory cues
KW  - RNA interference
KW  - vision
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-179564
VL  - 11
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Robin
A1  - Helfrich-Förster, Charlotte
A1  - Peschel, Nicolai
T1  - GSK-3 Beta Does Not Stabilize Cryptochrome in the Circadian Clock of Drosophila
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Cryptochrome (CRY) is the primary photoreceptor of Drosophila’s circadian clock. It resets the circadian clock by promoting light-induced degradation of the clock protein Timeless (TIM) in the proteasome. Under constant light, the clock stops because TIM is absent, and the flies become arrhythmic. In addition to TIM degradation, light also induces CRY degradation. This depends on the interaction of CRY with several proteins such as the E3 ubiquitin ligases Jetlag (JET) and Ramshackle (BRWD3). However, CRY can seemingly also be stabilized by interaction with the kinase Shaggy (SGG), the GSK-3 beta fly orthologue. Consequently, flies with SGG overexpression in certain dorsal clock neurons are reported to remain rhythmic under constant light. We were interested in the interaction between CRY, Ramshackle and SGG and started to perform protein interaction studies in S2 cells. To our surprise, we were not able to replicate the results, that SGG overexpression does stabilize CRY, neither in S2 cells nor in the relevant clock neurons. SGG rather does the contrary. Furthermore, flies with SGG overexpression in the dorsal clock neurons became arrhythmic as did wild-type flies. Nevertheless, we could reproduce the published interaction of SGG with TIM, since flies with SGG overexpression in the lateral clock neurons shortened their free-running period. We conclude that SGG does not directly interact with CRY but rather with TIM. Furthermore we could demonstrate, that an unspecific antibody explains the observed stabilization effects on CRY.
KW  - neurons
KW  - RNA interference
KW  - hyperexpression techniques
KW  - circadian rhythms
KW  - Drosophila melanogaster
KW  - animal behavior
KW  - phosphorylation
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-180370
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
ER  -