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Science 331 (6022): 1333-1336

Copyright © 2011 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Function of Rhodopsin in Temperature Discrimination in Drosophila

Wei L. Shen,1 Young Kwon,1 Abidemi A. Adegbola,2 Junjie Luo,1 Andrew Chess,2,3,4 Craig Montell1,*

Abstract: Many animals, including the fruit fly, are sensitive to small differences in ambient temperature. The ability of Drosophila larvae to choose their ideal temperature (18°C) over other comfortable temperatures (19° to 24°C) depends on a thermosensory signaling pathway that includes a heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein (G protein), a phospholipase C, and the transient receptor potential TRPA1 channel. We report that mutation of the gene (ninaE) encoding a classical G protein–coupled receptor (GPCR), Drosophila rhodopsin, eliminates thermotactic discrimination in the comfortable temperature range. This role for rhodopsin in thermotaxis toward 18°C was light-independent. Introduction of mouse melanopsin restored normal thermotactic behavior in ninaE mutant larvae. We propose that rhodopsins represent a class of evolutionarily conserved GPCRs that are required for initiating thermosensory signaling cascades.

1 Departments of Biological Chemistry and Neuroscience, Center for Sensory Biology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
2 Center For Human Genetic Research and Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
3 Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
4 Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology and Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cmontell{at}jhmi.edu

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