Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Vol. 169 by Bernd Nilius Thomas Gudermann Reinhard Jahn Roland Lill Ole H. Petersen & Pieter P. de Tombe

Author:Bernd Nilius, Thomas Gudermann, Reinhard Jahn, Roland Lill, Ole H. Petersen & Pieter P. de Tombe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

13 Drosophila Piezo Is Involved in Nociception, Although Not in Light Touch Sensitivity

dPiezo is widely expressed in every sensory neuron of Drosophila larvae (Kim et al. 2012). dPiezo knockout (KO) flies were viable and fertile and did not lack motor coordination (Kim et al. 2012). No defect in bristle mechanoreceptor potential and sensitivity to gentle innocuous touch mediated by ciliated sensory neurons was observed upon dPiezo deletion (Kim et al. 2012). Notably, dPiezo KO larvae showed impaired escape responses to painful mechanical stimuli. However, responses to high-noxious-temperature stimuli which also elicit an escape behavior were not altered in the absence of dPiezo (Kim et al. 2012). Thus, mechanical nociception in Drosophila larvae is specifically mediated by dPiezo, unlike light touch detection.

The TRPA channel Painless was previously associated with Drosophila mechanical nociception (Tracey et al. 2003). Interestingly, the double dPiezo:Painless mutant had a defect in mechanical nociception comparable to the individual mutants (Kim et al. 2012). Therefore, both dPiezo and Painless are likely to operate in the same pain pathway (Kim et al. 2012). Since Painless activity is modulated by intracellular calcium, it might be downstream of dPiezo (Nilius and Honore 2012). According to this possible scheme, Painless would amplify the nociceptive mechanical stimuli but would not act as a primary sensory channel activated by mechanical stress. While light touch, proprioception, and hearing in Drosophila are associated with TRP channels (Walker et al. 2000; Gong et al. 2004), dPiezo in multiple dendritic neurons mediates mechanical nociception (harsh touch). Thus, during evolution, the role of Piezo has evolved from nociception (dPiezo) in Drosophila to light touch (mPiezo2) in the mouse (Kim et al. 2012; Maksimovic et al. 2014; Ranade et al. 2014b; Woo et al. 2014).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.