Chromophore-independent roles of Drosophila opsin apoproteins and visual cycle components

by Radoslaw Katana
Doctoral thesis
Date of Examination:2018-11-23
Date of issue:2019-02-13
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Martin Göpfert
Referee:Prof. Dr. Martin Göpfert
Referee:Prof. Dr. André Fiala
Referee:Dr. Manuela Schmidt
Referee:Dr. Gerd Vorbrüggen
Referee:Prof. Dr. Jörg Großhans
Referee:Dr. Jan Clemens
Persistent Address: http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-7283

 

 

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Abstract

English

Visual rhodopsins consist of opsin protein moieties that are covalently bound to 11-cis-retinal, the visual chromophore that is derived from vitamin A. In Drosophila, the visual opsin genes Rh5 and Rh6 were reported to be expressed also in auditory sensory cells, contributing to mechanical amplification in hearing and sound transduction. In my thesis I report that these opsin functions are visual chromophore in-dependent. No auditory phenotypes ensued when flies were raised on vitamin-A depleted medium, and disrupting genes implicated in the de novo synthesis of 11-cis-retinal from vitamin A, i.e. ninaB and ninaD, likewise left hearing un-affected. Genes implicated in the re-cycling of 11-cis-retinal, i.e. pinta, ninaG, rdhB, and pdh, however, all turned out to be required for hearing, indicating that although the visual chromophore is dispensable for hearing, Drosophila auditory sensory cells might share the genetic pathway that, in Drosophila photoreceptors, mediates visual chromophore recycling.
Keywords: Chromophore; Opsin; Drosophila hearing
 
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