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Updated: Aug 12, 2026
Assaying Locomotor Activity to Study Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Parameters in Drosophila
Published on: September 28, 2010
Type II cAMP-dependent protein kinase-deficient Drosophila are viable but show developmental, circadian, and drug
S K Park1, S A Sedore, C Cronmiller
1Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903, USA.
Abstract:
We identified a unique type II cAMP-dependent protein kinase regulatory subunit (PKA-RII) gene in Drosophila melanogaster and a severely hypomorphic if not null mutation, pka-RII(EP(2)2162). Extracts from pka- RII(EP(2)2162) flies selectively lack RII-specific autophosphorylation activity and show significantly reduced cAMP binding activity, attributable to the loss of functional PKA-RII. pka-RII(EP(2)2162) shows 2-fold increased basal PKA activity and approximately 40% of normal cAMP-inducible PKA activity. pka-RII(EP(2)2162) is fully viable but displays abnormalities of ovarian development and multiple behavioral phenotypes including arrhythmic circadian locomotor activity, decreased sensitivity to ethanol and cocaine, and a lack of sensitization to repeated cocaine exposures. These findings implicate type II PKA activity in these processes in Drosophila and imply a common role for PKA signaling in regulating responsiveness to cocaine and alcohol.
