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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Organelle Transport in Cultured Drosophila Cells: S2 Cell Line and Primary Neurons.
Published on: November 20, 2013
LOVIT Is a Putative Vesicular Histamine Transporter Required in Drosophila for Vision
1National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Abstract:
Classical fast neurotransmitters are loaded into synaptic vesicles and concentrated by the action of a specific vesicular transporter before being released from the presynaptic neuron. In Drosophila, histamine is distributed mainly in photoreceptors, where it serves as the main neurotransmitter for visual input. In a targeted RNAi screen for neurotransmitter transporters involved in concentrating photoreceptor synaptic histamine, we identified an SLC45 transporter protein, LOVIT (loss of visual transmission). LOVIT is prominently expressed in photoreceptor synaptic vesicles and is required for Drosophila visual neurotransmission. Null mutations of lovit severely reduced the concentration of histamine in photoreceptor terminals. These results demonstrate a LOVIT-dependent mechanism, maintaining the synaptic concentration of histamine, and provide evidence for a histamine vesicular transporter besides the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT) family.
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