PUBLICATION
Melanopsin elevates locomotor activity during the wake state of the diurnal zebrafish
- Authors
- Dekens, M.P.S., Fontinha, B.M., Gallach, M., Pflügler, S., Tessmar-Raible, K.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-220303-22
- Date
- 2022
- Source
- EMBO reports 23(5): e51528 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Dekens, Marcus P.S.
- Keywords
- behavioural genetics, melatonin, neurogenetics, photobiology, pineal
- Datasets
- GEO:GSE189906
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Locomotion
- Mammals
- Melatonin*
- Mice
- Rod Opsins/genetics
- Zebrafish*/genetics
- PubMed
- 35233929 Full text @ EMBO Rep.
Citation
Dekens, M.P.S., Fontinha, B.M., Gallach, M., Pflügler, S., Tessmar-Raible, K. (2022) Melanopsin elevates locomotor activity during the wake state of the diurnal zebrafish. EMBO reports. 23(5):e51528.
Abstract
Mammalian and fish pineals play a key role in adapting behaviour to the ambient light conditions through the release of melatonin. In mice, light inhibits nocturnal locomotor activity via the non-visual photoreceptor Melanopsin. In contrast to the extensively studied function of Melanopsin in the indirect regulation of the rodent pineal, its role in the intrinsically photosensitive zebrafish pineal has not been elucidated. Therefore, it is not evident if the light signalling mechanism is conserved between distant vertebrates, and how Melanopsin could affect diurnal behaviour. A double knockout of melanopsins (opn4.1-opn4xb) was generated in the diurnal zebrafish, which manifests attenuated locomotor activity during the wake state. Transcriptome sequencing gave insight into pathways downstream of Melanopsin, implying that sustained repression of the melatonin pathway is required to elevate locomotor activity during the diurnal wake state. Moreover, we show that light induces locomotor activity during the diurnal wake state in an intensity-dependent manner. These observations suggest a common Melanopsin-driven mechanism between zebrafish and mammals, while the diurnal and nocturnal chronotypes are inversely regulated downstream of melatonin.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping