Role of Serotonin Transporter in Eye Development of Drosophila melanogaster

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 21; no. 11; p. 4086
• Main Authors: Pham, Tuan L A, Binh, Tran Duy, Liu, Guanchen, Nguyen, Thanh Q C, Nguyen, Yen D H, Sahashi, Ritsuko, Men, Tran Thanh, Kamei, Kaeko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08-06-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: 1-Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; AKT protein; Animals; Antibodies; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - genetics; Biomarkers; Caspases; Cell cycle; Cell death; Compound eye; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila melanogaster - embryology; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Drosophila melanogaster - metabolism; Drosophila Proteins - genetics; Drosophila Proteins - metabolism; Eye - embryology; eye development; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Genotype & phenotype; Insects; Kinases; Mental health; Nervous system; Neurotransmitters; Organogenesis - genetics; Organs; Phenotype; Phenotypes; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases - metabolism; Photoreceptors; PI3K/Akt pathway; Proteins; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt - metabolism; Serotonin; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - metabolism; Serotonin transporter; Signal Transduction; eye development; PI3K/Akt pathway; cell death; serotonin transporter; Drosophila
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21114086

Serotonin transporter (SerT) in the brain is an important neurotransmitter transporter involved in mental health. However, its role in peripheral organs is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the function of SerT in the development of the compound eye in
. We found that SerT knockdown led to excessive cell death and an increased number of cells in S-phase in the posterior eye imaginal disc. Furthermore, the knockdown of
in the eye disc suppressed the activation of Akt, and the introduction of
effectively rescued this phenotype. These results suggested that SerT plays a role in the healthy eye development of
by controlling cell death through the regulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway.