The role of octopamine receptor-expressing neurons in aggression.

表达章鱼胺受体的神经元在攻击中的作用。

• 批准号: 7981493
• 负责人: Eric Dominguez Hoopfer
• 金额: $ 5.13万
• 依托单位: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-12-01 至 2012-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7981493
• 关键词: Address; Aggressive behavior; Alcohol dependence; Animal Behavior; Animal Model; Behavior; Behavioral; Biogenic Amines; Brain; Collection; Complex; Computer software; Data; Dopamine; Drosophila melanogaster; Elements; Enhancers; Genetic; Goals; Human; Individual; Label; Logic; Maps; Mediating; Mental Depression; Mental disorders; Nervous system structure; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Octopamine; Organism; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Phenotype; Physiological; Play; Population; Population Control; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders; Presynaptic Terminals; Property; Public Health; Receptor Signaling; Reproduction; Research; Research Proposals; Resolution; Role; Serotonin; Signal Transduction; Social Behavior; Societies; Synapses; Techniques; Testing; gain of function; in vivo; insight; loss of function; neural circuit; novel; octopamine receptor; tool; visual tracking

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): SPACE PROVIDED. Research Summary: The major goal of this research proposal is to understand the logic that governs how neural circuits give rise to complex behaviors. I have chosen to focus on aggression, a nearly universal animal behavior that is important for survival and reproduction. The biogenic amine octopamine (OA), and its vertebrate counterpart noradrenalin, play important roles in aggression, as well as a variety of other social behaviors. However, the neural circuits on which these molecules act to regulate different social behaviors have not been well characterized. The aim of this proposal is to characterize the circuits that mediate the effects of OA on aggressive behavior in the genetically tractable organism Drosophila melanogaster. As an inroad to this problem, I will use genetic tools to alter neuronal activity of octopamine receptor-expressing neurons in vivo in order to answer the following questions: How does the activity of neurons expressing octopamine receptor 2 (Oa2) influence aggressive behaviors? What are the specific subpopulations of Oa2 neurons that are responsible for aggression and do different populations control various aspects of aggressive behavior? How do these Oa2 neuronal circuits function to mediate aggression and what are the neural pathways that they modulate? I will address these questions with the following specific aims: Aim 1- Loss-of-function and gain-of-function manipulations of octopamine receptor signaling. Aim 2 - Identification and characterization of octopamine receptor neuronal subsets. Aim 3 - Characterization of the projections of individual Oa2 neurons and their post-synaptic targets. Relevance to public health: In humans, aggression that is unchecked, persistent, or expressed out of context has profound negative impacts on society. Aberrant aggressive behavior is also associated with numerous prevalent psychiatric disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol addiction. Investigating aggressive behavior in a genetically tractable model organism will increase our understanding of the basic neural-circuit mechanisms used by the nervous system to control complex behavioral states, such as aggression.

描述（由申请人提供）：