UMMS Affiliation

Department of Neurobiology; Yang Xiang Lab; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience Program

Publication Date

2015-11-17

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience

Abstract

Pain signaling in vertebrates is modulated by neuropeptides like Substance P (SP). To determine whether such modulation is conserved and potentially uncover novel interactions between nociceptive signaling pathways we examined SP/Tachykinin signaling in a Drosophila model of tissue damage-induced nociceptive hypersensitivity. Tissue-specific knockdowns and genetic mutant analyses revealed that both Tachykinin and Tachykinin-like receptor (DTKR99D) are required for damage-induced thermal nociceptive sensitization. Electrophysiological recording showed that DTKR99D is required in nociceptive sensory neurons for temperature-dependent increases in firing frequency upon tissue damage. DTKR overexpression caused both behavioral and electrophysiological thermal nociceptive hypersensitivity. Hedgehog, another key regulator of nociceptive sensitization, was produced by nociceptive sensory neurons following tissue damage. Surprisingly, genetic epistasis analysis revealed that DTKR function was upstream of Hedgehog-dependent sensitization in nociceptive sensory neurons. Our results highlight a conserved role for Tachykinin signaling in regulating nociception and the power of Drosophila for genetic dissection of nociception.

Keywords

Drosophila melanogaster, neuroscience

Rights and Permissions

© 2015, Im et al. This article is distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution Licensepermitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

DOI of Published Version

10.7554/eLife.10735

Source

Elife. 2015 Nov 17;4. pii: e10735. doi: 10.7554/eLife.10735. Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

eLife

Comments

Co-author Kendra Takle is a student in the Neuroscience Program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School.

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

26575288

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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