title: Pyrexia is a new thermal transient receptor potential channel endowing tolerance to high temperatures in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: Several transient receptor potential channels were recently found to be activated by temperature stimuli in vitro. Their physiological and behavioral roles are largely unknown. From a temperature-preference behavior screen of 27,000 Drosophila melanogaster P-insertion mutants, we isolated a gene, named pyrexia (pyx), encoding a new transient receptor potential channel. Pyx was opened by temperatures above 40 degrees C in Xenopus laevis oocytes and HEK293T cells. It was ubiquitously expressed along the dendrites of a subset of peripheral nervous system neurons and was more permeable to K(+) than to Na(+). Although some pyx alleles resulted in abnormal temperature preferences, pyx null flies did not have significantly different temperature preferences than wild-type flies. But 60% of pyx null flies were paralyzed within 3 min of exposure to 40 degrees C, whereas only 9% of wild-type flies were paralyzed by the same stimulus. From these findings, we propose that the primary in vivo role of Pyx is to protect flies from high-temperature stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, 373-1 Guseong-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Youngseok
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jaejung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sunhoe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bang
authors.forename: Seogang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hyun
authors.forename: Jongkyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Sung-Tae
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Eunkyung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Bong-Kiun
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Kaang
authors.forename: Jaeseob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D005334:Fever / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D002148:Calmodulin-Binding Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D050051:Transient Receptor Potential Channels; C074192:trpl protein, Drosophila