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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on November 23, 2005
Chemical Senses 2006 31(1):49-62; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj005
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A Drosophila Nonvisual Arrestin Is Required for the Maintenance of Olfactory Sensitivity

Hong Ge1, Parthasarathy Krishnan2, Lingzhi Liu2, Balaji Krishnan2, Ronald L. Davis1, Paul E. Hardin2 and Gregg Roman1,2

1 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77303, USA and 2 Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX 77204, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Gregg Roman, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX 77204, USA. e-mail: gwroman{at}UH.edu

Nonvisual arrestins are a family of multifunctional adaptor molecules that regulate the activities of diverse families of receptors including G protein–coupled receptors, frizzled, and transforming growth factor-ß receptors. These activities indicate broad roles in both physiology and development for nonvisual arrestins. Drosophila melanogaster has a single nonvisual arrestin, kurtz, which is found at high levels within the adult olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs), suggesting a role for this gene in modulating olfactory sensitivity. Using heat-induced expression of a krz cDNA through development, we rescued krz1 lethality. The resulting adults lacked detectable levels of krz in the olfactory system. The rescued krz1 homozygotes have an incompletely penetrant antennal structural defect that was completely rescued by the neural expression of a krz cDNA. The krz1 loss-of-function adults without visible antennal defects displayed diminished behavioral responsiveness to both aversive and attractive odors and also demonstrated reduced olfactory receptor potentials. Both the behavioral and electrophysiological phenotypes were rescued by the targeted expression of the krz cDNA within postdevelopmental ORNs. Thus, krz is required within the nervous system for antennal development and is required later in the ORNs for the maintenance of olfactory sensitivity in Drosophila. The reduced receptor potentials in krz1 antenna indicate that nonvisual arrestins are required for the early odor-induced signaling events within the ORNs.

Key words: adaptation, antenna, arrestin, Drosophila, electroantennogram, olfaction


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 GeneticsHome page
L. Liu, R. L. Davis, and G. Roman
Exploratory Activity in Drosophila Requires the kurtz Nonvisual Arrestin
Genetics, March 1, 2007; 175(3): 1197 - 1212.
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