Inhibitory control of synaptic and behavioral plasticity by octopaminergic signaling
Student Authors
Alex KoonAcademic Program
NeuroscienceUMass Chan Affiliations
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience ProgramBudnik Lab
Neurobiology
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2012-05-02Keywords
Animals; Drosophila; Neural Inhibition; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons; Octopamine; Receptors, Biogenic Amine; Synapses; Synaptic TransmissionNeuroscience and Neurobiology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Adrenergic receptors and their ligands are important regulators of synaptic plasticity and metaplasticity, but the exact mechanisms underlying their action are still poorly understood. Octopamine, the invertebrate homolog of mammalian adrenaline or noradrenaline, plays important roles in modulating behavior and synaptic functions. We previously uncovered an octopaminergic positive-feedback mechanism to regulate structural synaptic plasticity during development and in response to starvation. Under this mechanism, activation of Octß2R autoreceptors by octopamine at octopaminergic neurons initiated a cAMP-dependent cascade that stimulated the development of new synaptic boutons at the Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ). However, the regulatory mechanisms that served to brake such positive feedback were not known. Here, we report the presence of an alternative octopamine autoreceptor, Octß1R, with antagonistic functions on synaptic growth. Mutations in octß1r result in the overgrowth of both glutamatergic and octopaminergic NMJs, suggesting that Octß1R is a negative regulator of synaptic expansion. As Octß2R, Octß1R functioned in a cell-autonomous manner at presynaptic motorneurons. However, unlike Octß2R, which activated a cAMP pathway, Octß1R likely inhibited cAMP production through inhibitory Goα. Despite its inhibitory role, Octß1R was required for acute changes in synaptic structure in response to octopamine and for starvation-induced increase in locomotor speed. These results demonstrate the dual action of octopamine on synaptic growth and behavioral plasticity, and highlight the important role of inhibitory influences for normal responses to physiological stimuli.Source
J Neurosci. 2012 May 2;32(18):6312-22. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6517-11.2012. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6517-11.2012Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/33261PubMed ID
22553037Related Resources
Link to article in PubMedRights
Copyright © 2012 the authors. Publisher PDF posted as allowed by the publisher's author rights policy at http://www.jneurosci.org/site/misc/ifa_policies.xhtml#copyright. Copyright of all material published in The Journal of Neuroscience remains with the authors. The authors grant the Society for Neuroscience an exclusive license to publish their work for the first 6 months. After 6 months the work becomes available to the public to copy, distribute, or display under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6517-11.2012