A neuropeptide that plays a fundamental role in the clock neurons of Drosophila melanogaster.

CERIANI, M. FERNANDA; HERRERO, ANASTASIA

Congreso; XIV Latin American Symposium on Chronobiology 2017; 2017

Ventral lateral neurons (LNvs) are essential in the control of rest-activity rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster. A few years ago our lab reported that these clock neurons undergo circadian remodeling of their axonal projections, a phenomenon called circadian structural plasticity (Fernández et al., 2008). Axonal arborizations display higher complexity during the day and less so at night, and this remodeling involves changes in the degree of connectivity (Gorostiza et al., 2014). Potential mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are changes in the degree of fasciculation, neurite outgrowth and retraction. Interestingly, late at night, active pruning appears to take place, and as a result primary neurites are significantly shortened, underscoring that the most dramatic remodeling takes place around dawn (Gorostiza et al., 2014). In this work we characterize in detail the role of the neuropeptide PDF. We show a specific time of the day function of this neuropeptide affecting the circadian remodeling of sLNvs, through RNAi-mediated silencing at different times in the day. We analyze pdf at both transcriptional and protein levels, providing further evidence to understand the tight relationship between the circadian structural plasticity and PDF. We proposed that these changes could be affected by different mechanisms, just like neuronal electrical activity; providing additional cues to transmit time of day information, i.e., resulting in differential neurotransmitter release.