Animal Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Melatonin On Heartbeat And Possible Identification Of A Melatonin Receptor In Drosophila Melanogaster, Tricia L. Vankirk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this manuscript is a literature review that serves as an introduction to the entire dissertation. Chapter 2 examines the effects of the melatonin injection on heart rate and rhythmicity in Drosophila melanogaster Canton-S (wild-type) pupae and pupae bearing a variety of heart mutations. Chapter 3 investigates further the possible mechanisms of melatonin’s ability to increase heart rhythmicity without significantly affecting heart rate. A melatonin antagonist, luzindole; a high-affinity melatonin agonist, 2-iodomelatonin and RNAi techniques are used to identify a possible melatonin receptor in Drosophila melanogaster.

An appendix contains a previously published manuscript detailing experiments performed at the …

The Effects Of Serotonin On The Courtship Behavior Of Drosophilia Melanogaster, Nicholas James Brandmeir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Drosophila, the male courtship ritual is stereotyped and under the control of several genes including fruitless. In previous studies, it has been show that various fruitless alleles cause phenotypic abnormalities in the D. melanogaster courtship ritual. It is also known that there is a high level of co-expression of both the fruitless gene product and serotonin in specific neurons of the Drosophila CNS. This study examines the role of serotonin in the Drosophila male courtship ritual by using a mutant strain, Ddc^ts1,in which the production of serotonin is blocked above 30°C. In this study an increase in temperature caused …

Effect On Heartbeat Of Drosophila Melanogaster Of Mutations In The Calcium Channel Encoding Cacophony Gene And Its Interaction With The Rna Helicase Mutant Maleless^Napts, Vanessa Mcgowan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a lack of information concerning the genetics of heart disease, especially of those due to aberrant pacemaker activity. Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal candidate for research in this area because of its suitability to genetic manipulation and its accessible genetic database. What is most compelling, however, is that the genesis of heartbeat is Drosophila is strikingly similar to that in many other organisms, including mammals. The myogenic heart of DrosophiIa melanogaster is stimulated to contract by a caudal pacemaker, which is regulated by ion channel interactions. A voltage-gated calcium channel of PIQ- or N-type is implicated in the …