Synaptic calcium-channel function in Drosophila: analysis and transformation rescue of temperature-sensitive paralytic and lethal mutations of cacophony.

ABSTRACT: Voltage-gated calcium channels play a key role in chemical synaptic transmission by providing the calcium trigger for regulated neurotransmitter release. Genes encoding the primary structural subunit, alpha1, as well as accessory subunits of presynaptic calcium channels have now been identified in a variety of organisms. The cacophony (cac) gene in Drosophila, also known as nightblind A, encodes a voltage-gated calcium-channel alpha1 subunit homologous to vertebrate alpha1 subunits implicated in neurotransmitter release. A recent genetic screen in our laboratory isolated cac(TS2), a conditional cac mutant exhibiting rapid paralysis at elevated temperatures. This mutant has allowed synaptic electrophysiology after acute perturbation of a specific calcium-channel gene product, demonstrating

SUBMITTER: Kawasaki F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6757926 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature