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The determination of histamine in the Drosophila head
Histamine is a neurotransmitter at arthropod photoreceptors. Even though the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a widely used model in neuroscience research, the histamine content of its nervous system has not so far been reported. We have developed a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC...
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Published in: | Journal of neuroscience methods 2000-09, Vol.101 (2), p.141-148 |
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Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Histamine is a neurotransmitter at arthropod photoreceptors. Even though the fruit fly,
Drosophila melanogaster, is a widely used model in neuroscience research, the histamine content of its nervous system has not so far been reported. We have developed a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with pre-column
o-phtaldialdehyde-mercaptoethanol (OPA-ME) derivatization and electrochemical detection, to determine this amine in
Drosophila. The histamine content of the fly's head averages about 2.0 ng per head. In heads of the mutant
hdc
JK910, a presumed null for the gene encoding the enzyme that synthesizes histamine, histamine was not detected in measurable amounts. In heads of the mutant
sine oculis, which lacks compound eyes, only 28% of this amine was found compared with wild type flies, so histamine is mainly present in the compound eye photoreceptors. Also observed in histamine-deficient mutants was a decrease in the peak which contains a substance having the same retention time as carcinine (β-alanyl-histamine). Our method was not able to detect compounds previously reported as histamine metabolites in insects. In spite of this, the method we have developed enables the fast and accurate measurement of histamine in the heads of
Drosophila, suitable for screening mutants. |
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ISSN: | 0165-0270 1872-678X |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0165-0270(00)00259-4 |