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Updated: May 28, 2026
Methods to Test Endocrine Disruption in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: July 3, 2019
Decrease in juvenile hormone level as a result of genetic ablation of the corpus allatum cells affects the synthesis
N E Gruntenko1, E V Bogomolova, N V Adonyeva
1Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia. nataly@bionet.nsc.ru
Abstract:
Previous studies have shown that juvenile hormone (JH) regulates dopamine (DA) and octopamine (OA) content in Drosophila, and we have shown the influence of an increase in JH level on DA and OA metabolism in young females of Drosophila virilis and Drosophila melanogaster. Here we investigate the effects of genetic ablation of a subset of cells in the Corpusallatum (CA, endocrine gland synthesizing JH) on the DA levels and activities of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), DA-dependent arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (DAT) and tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC) in young D. melanogaster females under normal conditions and upon heat stress (38°С). We show that ablation of СА cells causes: (1) a decrease in ALP, TH and DAT activities, (2) an increase in DA level and (3) an increase in TDC activity in young females. The CA ablation was also found to modulate ALP, TH and TDC responses to heat stress. Mechanisms of regulation of DA and OA levels by JH in Drosophila females are discussed.
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