title: A glial variant of the vesicular monoamine transporter is required to store histamine in the Drosophila visual system.
abstract: Unlike other monoamine neurotransmitters, the mechanism by which the brain's histamine content is regulated remains unclear. In mammals, vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) are expressed exclusively in neurons and mediate the storage of histamine and other monoamines. We have studied the visual system of Drosophila melanogaster in which histamine is the primary neurotransmitter released from photoreceptor cells. We report here that a novel mRNA splice variant of Drosophila VMAT (DVMAT-B) is expressed not in neurons but rather in a small subset of glia in the lamina of the fly's optic lobe. Histamine contents are reduced by mutation of dVMAT, but can be partially restored by specifically expressing DVMAT-B in glia. Our results suggest a novel role for a monoamine transporter in glia that may be relevant to histamine homeostasis in other systems.
authors.affiliation: Gonda Goldschmied Center for Neuroscience and Genetics Research, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romero-Calderón
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Uhlenbrock
authors.forename: Jolanta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borycz
authors.forename: Anne F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grygoruk
authors.forename: Susan K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shyer
authors.forename: Larry C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Ackerson
authors.forename: Nigel T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Maidment
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Meinertzhagen
authors.forename: Bernhard T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Hovemann
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Krantz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006632:Histamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000378:metabolism*; D009899:Optic Lobe, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012326:RNA Splicing; D050493:Vesicular Monoamine Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D050493:Vesicular Monoamine Transport Proteins; D006632:Histamine