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G-protein αq gene expression plays a role in alcohol tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster
Aleyakpo, Benjamin Umukoro, Oghenetega Kavlie, Ryan Ranson, Daniel C Thompsett, Andrew Corcoran, Olivia Casalotti, Stefano O
Aleyakpo, Benjamin
Umukoro, Oghenetega
Kavlie, Ryan
Ranson, Daniel C
Thompsett, Andrew
Corcoran, Olivia
Casalotti, Stefano O
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2019-11-01
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Abstract
Ethanol is a psychoactive substance causing both short- and long-term behavioural changes in humans and animal models. We have used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the effect of ethanol exposure on the expression of the Gαq protein subunit. Repetitive exposure to ethanol causes a reduction in sensitivity (tolerance) to ethanol, which we have measured as the time for 50% of a set of flies to become sedated after exposure to ethanol (ST50). We demonstrate that the same treatment that induces an increase in ST50 over consecutive days (tolerance) also causes a decrease in Gαq protein subunit expression at both the messenger RNA and protein level. To identify whether there may be a causal relationship between these two outcomes, we have developed strains of flies in which Gαq messenger RNA expression is suppressed in a time- and tissue-specific manner. In these flies, the sensitivity to ethanol and the development of tolerance are altered. This work further supports the value of Drosophila as a model to dissect the molecular mechanisms of the behavioural response to alcohol and identifies G proteins as potentially important regulatory targets for alcohol use disorders.
Citation
Aleyakpo, B., Umukoro, O., Kavlie, R., Ranson, D.C., Thompsett, A., Corcoran, O. and Casalotti, S.O. (2019) G-protein αq gene expression plays a role in alcohol tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster. Brain and neuroscience advances, 3, pp.1-7.
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PubMed ID
32166184 (pubmed)
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Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2019 The Authors. Published by SAGE. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1177/2398212819883081
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2398-2128
EISSN
2398-2128
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This work was partially funded by the University of East London through an equipment start-up grant to S.O.C. B.A. and O.U. were self-funded PhD students and have contributed to the cost of the research through bench fees. B.A. was granted a partial fees-bursary from the University of East London. D.C.R. is supported by a PhD scholarship from the Society for the Study of Addiction.
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Licence for published version: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International