Towards a unified vision on animal navigation.

The study of animal navigation is a complex and fertile field of research: Several questions regarding how animals relate to external stimuli, integrating them to perform their everyday movement routine, have been or are being addressed in different organisms and taxa, both from the behavioural and the neuronal activity point of view. Several invertebrate model organisms are the object of studies aimed at unravelling how they navigate and their ability to precisely return to a starting point and also how navigational information is communicated to conspecifics when precise social structures are present. Also, vertebrates are studied because of the interest in their orientation abilities while migrating, homing over impressive distances and studying exploration, orientation and space recognition. Last, research on the navigation capabilities of humans pursues a better understanding of the neural architecture involved in these processes in the remarkable effort to find answers and possible solutions to impairments, lesions and diseases. However, an 'all-inclusive' vision of navigation still appears to be in its embryonic state: A better perspective could (and should) shift from a paradigm where single research teams are centred on studying navigation in a single genus or species towards a more comprehensive evolutionary-centred view, searching systematically for behavioural analogies, and possibly for homologies in neural architecture between different taxa. In this review, we introduce examples of relevant topics in animal navigation from distinct animal groups, highlighting the similar approaches of those studies, and why, in our opinion, this research field could profit from a 'new' perspective.

Action-based attention in Drosophila melanogaster.

The mechanism of action selection is a widely shared fundamental process required by animals to interact with the environment and adapt to it. A key step in this process is the filtering of the "distracting" sensory inputs that may disturb action selection. Because it has been suggested that, in principle, action selection may also be processed by shared circuits in vertebrate and invertebrates, we wondered whether invertebrates show the ability to filter out "distracting" stimuli during a goal-directed action, as seen in vertebrates. In this experiment, action selection was studied in wild-type Drosophila melanogaster by investigating their reaction to the abrupt appearance of a visual distractor during an ongoing locomotor action directed to a visual target. We found that when the distractor was present, flies tended to shift the original trajectory toward it, thus acknowledging its presence, but they did not fully commit to it, suggesting that an inhibition process took place to continue the unfolding of the planned goal-directed action. To some extent flies appeared to take into account and represent motorically the distractor, but they did not engage in a complete change of their initial motor program in favor of the distractor. These results provide interesting insights into the selection-for-action mechanism, in a context requiring action-centered attention, that might have appeared rather early in the course of evolution. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Action selection and maintenance of a goal-directed action require animals to ignore irrelevant "distracting" stimuli that might elicit alternative motor programs. In this study we observed, in Drosophila melanogaster, a top-down mechanism inhibiting the response toward salient stimuli, to accomplish a goal-directed action. These data highlight, for the first time in an invertebrate organism, that the action-based attention shown by higher organisms, such as humans and nonhuman primates, might have an ancestral origin.

UCP4C mediates uncoupled respiration in larvae of Drosophila melanogaster.

Larvae of Drosophila melanogaster reared at 23°C and switched to 14°C for 1 h are 0.5°C warmer than the surrounding medium. In keeping with dissipation of energy, respiration of Drosophila melanogaster larvae cannot be decreased by the F-ATPase inhibitor oligomycin or stimulated by protonophore. Silencing of Ucp4C conferred sensitivity of respiration to oligomycin and uncoupler, and prevented larva-to-adult progression at 15°C but not 23°C. Uncoupled respiration of larval mitochondria required palmitate, was dependent on Ucp4C and was inhibited by guanosine diphosphate. UCP4C is required for development through the prepupal stages at low temperatures and may be an uncoupling protein.

Leigh syndrome in Drosophila melanogaster: morphological and biochemical characterization of Surf1 post-transcriptional silencing.

Leigh Syndrome (LS) is the most common early-onset, progressive mitochondrial encephalopathy usually leading to early death. The single most prevalent cause of LS is occurrence of mutations in the SURF1 gene, and LS(Surf1) patients show a ubiquitous and specific decrease in the activity of mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV (cytochrome c oxidase, COX). SURF1 encodes an inner membrane mitochondrial protein involved in COX assembly. We established a Drosophila melanogaster model of LS based on the post-transcriptional silencing of CG9943, the Drosophila homolog of SURF1. Knockdown of Surf1 was induced ubiquitously in larvae and adults, which led to lethality; in the mesodermal derivatives, which led to pupal lethality; or in the central nervous system, which allowed survival. A biochemical characterization was carried out in knockdown individuals, which revealed that larvae unexpectedly displayed defects in all complexes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and in the F-ATP synthase, while adults had a COX-selective impairment. Silencing of Surf1 expression in Drosophila S2R(+) cells led to selective loss of COX activity associated with decreased oxygen consumption and respiratory reserve. We conclude that Surf1 is essential for COX activity and mitochondrial function in D. melanogaster, thus providing a new tool that may help clarify the pathogenic mechanisms of LS.

Functional characterization of drim2, the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of the yeast mitochondrial deoxynucleotide transporter.

The CG18317 gene (drim2) is the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rim2 gene, which encodes a pyrimidine (deoxy)nucleotide carrier. Here, we tested if the drim2 gene also encodes for a deoxynucleotide transporter in the fruit fly. The protein was localized to mitochondria. Drosophila S2R(+) cells, silenced for drim2 expression, contained markedly reduced pools of both purine and pyrimidine dNTPs in mitochondria, whereas cytosolic pools were unaffected. In vivo drim2 homozygous knock-out was lethal at the larval stage, preceded by the following: (i) impaired locomotor behavior; (ii) decreased rates of oxygen consumption, and (iii) depletion of mtDNA. We conclude that the Drosophila mitochondrial carrier dRIM2 transports all DNA precursors and is essential to maintain mitochondrial function.

Dopamine Modulation of Drosophila Ellipsoid Body Neurons, a Nod to the Mammalian Basal Ganglia.

The central complex (CX) is a neural structure located on the midline of the insect brain that has been widely studied in the last few years. Its role in navigation and goal-oriented behaviors resembles those played by the basal ganglia in mammals. However, the neural mechanisms and the neurotransmitters involved in these processes remain unclear. Here, we exploited an in vivo bioluminescence Ca2+ imaging technique to record the activity in targeted neurons of the ellipsoid body (EB). We used different drugs to evoke excitatory Ca2+-responses, depending on the putative neurotransmitter released by their presynaptic inputs, while concomitant dopamine administration was employed to modulate those excitations. By using a genetic approach to knockdown the dopamine 1-like receptors, we showed that different dopamine modulatory effects are likely due to specific receptors expressed by the targeted population of neurons. Altogether, these results provide new data concerning how dopamine modulates and shapes the response of the ellipsoid body neurons. Moreover, they provide important insights regarding the similitude with mammals as far as the role played by dopamine in increasing and stabilizing the response of goal-related information.

DJ-1 and SOD1 Act Independently in the Protection against Anoxia in Drosophila melanogaster.

Redox homeostasis is a vital process the maintenance of which is assured by the presence of numerous antioxidant small molecules and enzymes and the alteration of which is involved in many pathologies, including several neurodegenerative disorders. Among the different enzymes involved in the antioxidant response, SOD1 and DJ-1 have both been associated with the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, suggesting a possible interplay in their mechanism of action. Copper deficiency in the SOD1-active site has been proposed as a central determinant in SOD1-related neurodegeneration. SOD1 maturation mainly relies on the presence of the protein copper chaperone for SOD1 (CCS), but a CCS-independent alternative pathway also exists and functions under anaerobic conditions. To explore the possible involvement of DJ-1 in such a pathway in vivo, we exposed Drosophila melanogaster to anoxia and evaluated the effect of DJ-1 on fly survival and SOD1 levels, in the presence or absence of CCS. Loss of DJ-1 negatively affects the fly response to the anoxic treatment, but our data indicate that the protective activity of DJ-1 is independent of SOD1 in Drosophila, indicating that the two proteins may act in different pathways.

Lifespan and ROS levels in different Drosophila melanogaster strains after 24†h hypoxia exposure.

During recent decades, model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster have made it possible to study the effects of different environmental oxygen conditions on lifespan and oxidative stress. However, many studies have often yielded controversial results usually assigned to variations in Drosophila genetic background and differences in study design. In this study, we compared longevity and ROS levels in young, unmated males of three laboratory wild-type lines (Canton-S, Oregon-R and Berlin-K) and one mutant line (Sod1n1) as a positive control of redox imbalance, under both normoxic and hypoxic (2% oxygen for 24 h) conditions. Lifespan was used to detect the effects of hypoxic treatment and differences were analysed by means of Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank tests. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure ROS levels and analysis of variance was used to estimate the effects of hypoxic treatment and to assess ROS differences between strains. We observed that the genetic background is a relevant factor involved in D. melanogaster longevity and ROS levels. Indeed, as expected, in normoxia Sod1n1 are the shortest-lived, while the wild-type strains, despite a longer lifespan, show some differences, with the Canton-S line displaying the lowest mortality rate. After hypoxic stress these variances are amplified, with Berlin-K flies showing the highest mortality rate and most evident reduction of lifespan. Moreover, our analysis highlighted differential effects of hypoxia on redox balance/unbalance. Canton-S flies had the lowest increase of ROS level compared to all the other strains, confirming it to be the less sensitive to hypoxic stress. Sod1n1 flies displayed the highest ROS levels in normoxia and after hypoxia. These results should be used to further standardize future Drosophila research models designed to investigate genes and pathways that may be involved in lifespan and/or ROS, as well as comparative studies on specific mutant strains.

aubergine gene overexpression in somatic tissues of aubergine(sting) mutants interferes with the RNAi pathway of a yellow hairpin dsRNA in Drosophila melanogaster.

AUBERGINE (AUB) is a member of the PPD family of proteins. These proteins are implicated in RNA interference. In this article we demonstrate that the expression of the aub gene and protein increase in aub(sting) mutants. We used a genetic method to test whether aub(sting) overexpression could interfere with proper functioning of the process of RNA interference in somatic tissues of Drosophila melanogaster. This method is based on a transgenic line bearing a construct in which a fragment of the yellow (y) gene is cloned to form an inverted repeat (y-IR) under the control of the upstream activation sequence (UAS) of the yeast transcriptional activator GAL4. The UAS-y-IR transgene and the Act5C-GAL4 driver were brought together on chromosome 3 via recombination. In the resulting strain (Act5C-y-IR), transcriptional activation by GAL4 constitutively produces a dsRNA hairpin bearing cognate sequences to the yellow gene causing continuing degradation of y mRNA resulting in yellow(1) (y(1)) phenocopies. In this genetic background, the mutation of any factor involved in RNAi should repress degradation of y mRNA, restoring the wild-type phenotype. We employed this genetic approach to show that an increased amount of AUBERGINE interferes with the regular functioning of the somatic RNAi pathway.

Post-transcriptional silencing of the Drosophila homolog of human ZASP: a molecular and functional analysis.

In humans, mutations in ZASP (the gene for Z-band alternatively spliced PDZ-motif protein) are associated with dilated cardiomyopathy and left ventricular non-compaction. In particular, mutations in or around the Zasp motif seem to be related to myofibrillar myopathy. Thus, "zaspopathies" include symptoms such as Z-line disgregation, proximal and distal muscle weakness, cardiomyopathies, and peripheral neuropathies. In order to understand the role of ZASP in muscle structure and function, we have performed a molecular characterization of the Drosophila ortholog of human ZASP and a functional analysis following the post-transcriptional silencing of the Drosophila gene. Transcriptional analysis of dzasp has revealed six additional exons, with respect to the known 16, and multiple splice variants. We have produced transgenic lines harboring constructs that, through the use of the UAS/Gal4 binary system, have enabled us to drive dsRNA interference of dzasp in a tissue-specific manner. Knockdown individuals show locomotor defects associated with alterations of muscle structure and ultrastructure, consistent with a role of dzasp specifically in the maintenance of muscular integrity.

From action potential to contraction: neural control and excitation-contraction coupling in larval muscles of Drosophila.

The neuromuscular system of Drosophila melanogaster has been studied for many years for its relative simplicity and because of the genetic and molecular versatilities. Three main types of striated muscles are present in this dipteran: fibrillar muscles, tubular muscles and supercontractile muscles. The visceral muscles in adult flies and the body wall segmental muscles in embryos and larvae belong to the group of supercontractile muscles. Larval body wall muscles have been the object of detailed studies as a model for neuromuscular junction function but have received much less attention with respect to their mechanical properties and to the control of contraction. In this review we wish to assess available information on the physiology of the Drosophila larval muscular system. Our aim is to establish whether this system has the requisites to be considered a good model in which to perform a functional characterization of Drosophila genes, with a known muscular expression, as well as Drosophila homologs of human genes, the dysfunction of which, is known to be associated with human hereditary muscle pathologies.

Post-transcriptional silencing and functional characterization of the Drosophila melanogaster homolog of human Surf1.

Mutations in Surf1, a human gene involved in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase (COX), cause Leigh syndrome, the most common infantile mitochondrial encephalopathy, characterized by a specific COX deficiency. We report the generation and characterization of functional knockdown (KD) lines for Surf1 in Drosophila. KD was produced by post-transcriptional silencing employing a transgene encoding a dsRNA fragment of the Drosophila homolog of human Surf1, activated by the UAS transcriptional activator. Two alternative drivers, Actin5C-GAL4 or elav-GAL4, were used to induce silencing ubiquitously or in the CNS, respectively. Actin5C-GAL4 KD produced 100% egg-to-adult lethality. Most individuals died as larvae, which were sluggish and small. The few larvae reaching the pupal stage died as early imagos. Electron microscopy of larval muscles showed severely altered mitochondria. elav-GAL4-driven KD individuals developed to adulthood, although cephalic sections revealed low COX-specific activity. Behavioral and electrophysiological abnormalities were detected, including reduced photoresponsiveness in KD larvae using either driver, reduced locomotor speed in Actin5C-GAL4 KD larvae, and impaired optomotor response as well as abnormal electroretinograms in elav-GAL4 KD flies. These results indicate important functions for SURF1 specifically related to COX activity and suggest a crucial role of mitochondrial energy pathways in organogenesis and CNS development and function.

A lysolecithin/fatty acid mixture promotes and then blocks neurotransmitter release at the Drosophila melanogaster larval neuromuscular junction.

The study of the effect of snake presynaptic neurotoxins with phospholipase A2 activity on nerve terminals has recently unveiled the inhibitory action of a lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC)/fatty acid mixture. We report here that these neurotoxins have no activity on Drosophila melanogaster nerve terminals. However, a 1:1 mixture of LysoPC and oleic acid induces an early increase, followed by an inhibition of both evoked and spontaneous neurotransmitter release. This effect is also induced by LysoPC alone. The present findings provide an indirect evidence that the lipid hemifusion-to-pore transition is a key event in neuroexocytosis in Drosophila. Moreover, these findings substantiate the use of LysoPC as a general agonist of membrane fusion at nerve terminals. This novel tool could contribute to the unraveling of the molecular steps involved in neuroexocytosis, particularly in Drosophila, where it is straightforward to combine it with electrophysiology and genetics.

Monitoring and analyzing Drosophila circadian locomotor activity.

In the 1970s, the intriguing discovery of autonomous circadian rhythmicity at the behavioral level in Drosophila set the starting point for one of the most remarkably rapid advancements in the understanding of the genetic and molecular bases of a complex behavioral trait. To this end, the design of appropriate electronic devices, apt to continuously monitor behavioral activity, has proven to be fundamental to such progress. In particular, most of the mutational screens performed to date in the search for genes involved in circadian rhythmicity were based on monitoring Drosophila mutants for alterations in the circadian pattern of locomotor activity. Many different experimental paradigms, based on the use of circadian locomotor activity monitors, have been developed. Experiments can be designed to determine (1) the natural period, (2) the capacity to adapt to day-night cycles with photoperiods of differing length, and (3) the phase of the circadian activity cycles with respect to the entraining stimulus. Here we describe some of the rationale and the steps required to set up experiments to monitor circadian locomotor activity in Drosophila. Suggestions for the statistical analysis of the data obtained in such experiments are also provided.

Phenotypic effects induced by knock-down of the period clock gene in Bombyx mori.

The lepidopteran Bombyx mori is an insect of considerable scientific and economic importance. Recently, the B. mori circadian clock gene period has been molecularly characterized. We have transformed a B. mori strain with a construct encoding a period double-strand RNA in order to knock-down period gene expression. We observe that this post-transcriptional silencing produces a small but detectable disruption in the egg-hatching rhythm, as well as a reduction in egg-to-adult developmental time, without altering silk production parameters. Thus we show that both circadian and non-circadian phenotypes can be altered by changing per expression, and, at a practical level, these results suggest that per knock-down may provide a suitable strategy for improving the efficiency of rearing, without affecting silk productivity.

The clock gene period in the medfly Ceratitis capitata.

We have isolated the clock gene period (per) from the medfly Ceratitis capitata, one of the most economically important insect pest species. The overall pattern of conserved, non-conserved and functional domains that are observed within dipteran and lepidopteran per orthologues is preserved within the coding sequence. Expression analysis from fly heads revealed a daily oscillation in per mRNA in both light : dark cycles and in constant darkness. However PER protein levels from head extracts did not show any significant evidence for cycling in either of these two conditions. When the Ceratitis per transgene under the control of the Drosophila per promoter and 3'UTR was introduced into Drosophila per -null mutant hosts, the transformants revealed a low level of rescue of behavioural rhythmicity. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the rhythmic transformants showed some similarities to that of ceratitis, suggesting that Ceratitis per carries species-specific information that can evidently affect the Drosophila host's downstream rhythmic behaviour.

Drosophila CAKI/CMG protein, a homolog of human CASK, is essential for regulation of neurotransmitter vesicle release.

Vertebrate CASK is a member of the membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) family of proteins. CASK is present in the nervous system where it binds to neurexin, a transmembrane protein localized in the presynaptic membrane. The Drosophila homologue of CASK is CAKI or CAMGUK. CAKI is expressed in the nervous system of larvae and adult flies. In adult flies, the expression of caki is particularly evident in the visual brain regions. To elucidate the functional role of CASK, we employed a caki null mutant in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. By means of electrophysiological methods, we analyzed, in adult flies, the spontaneous and evoked neurotransmitter release at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) as well as the functional status of the giant fiber pathway and of the visual system. We found that in caki mutants, when synaptic activity is modified, the spontaneous neurotransmitter release of the indirect flight muscle NMJ was increased, the response of the giant fiber pathway to continuous stimulation was impaired, and electroretinographic responses to single and continuous repetitive stimuli were altered and optomotor behavior was abnormal. These results support the involvement of CAKI in neurotransmitter release and nervous system function.