G-protein αq gene expression plays a role in alcohol tolerance inDrosophila melanogaster
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Benjamin Aleyakpo; Ryan G. Kavlie; Olivia Corcoran; Stefano O. Casalotti; Daniel C. Ranson; Oghenetega Umukoro; Andrew Thompsett
- Source
- Brain and Neuroscience Advances
- Subject
- 0301 basic medicine
G protein
Protein subunit
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
0302 clinical medicine
Gene expression
Alcohol tolerance
Messenger RNA
tolerance
Ethanol
biology
General Neuroscience
fungi
biology.organism_classification
Cell biology
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
Gq alpha subunit
siRNA
biology.protein
Gal4
Drosophila
Neurology (clinical)
sedation time
Drosophila melanogaster
Alcohol
Gal80ts
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Research Paper
G proteins
- Language
- ISSN
- 2398-2128
Ethanol is a psychoactive substance causing both short- and long-term behavioural changes in humans and animal models. We have used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the effect of ethanol exposure on the expression of the Gαq protein subunit. Repetitive exposure to ethanol causes a reduction in sensitivity (tolerance) to ethanol, which we have measured as the time for 50% of a set of flies to become sedated after exposure to ethanol (ST50). We demonstrate that the same treatment that induces an increase in ST50 over consecutive days (tolerance) also causes a decrease in Gαq protein subunit expression at both the messenger RNA and protein level. To identify whether there may be a causal relationship between these two outcomes, we have developed strains of flies in which Gαq messenger RNA expression is suppressed in a time- and tissue-specific manner. In these flies, the sensitivity to ethanol and the development of tolerance are altered. This work further supports the value of Drosophila as a model to dissect the molecular mechanisms of the behavioural response to alcohol and identifies G proteins as potentially important regulatory targets for alcohol use disorders.