Ganter Lab publishes paper in PLoS ONE
Geoffrey Ganter, Ph.D., professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences, and his lab team recently published a paper in PLoS ONE.
The paper, titled 鈥淪teroid Receptor Isoform Expression in Drosophila Nociceptor Neurons Is Required for Normal Dendritic Arbor and Sensitivity,鈥 explains that steroid hormones have roles in the development of the nervous system, comprising neuromodulary roles and activational roles, including regulation of sensitivity to painful stimuli in fruit flies, as is known in mammals.
The fruit fly offers researchers a simplified model in which to study the basic mechanisms of processes like pain. In previous publications, the Ganter Lab reported that this hormone system is involved in the selection of sex-specific courtship behaviors, and this paper represents the lab鈥檚 first entry into the biology of pain.
Drosophila, or fruit flies, are easy to manipulate genetically, and have only one type of steroid hormone (compared to many in mammals) called ecdysteroid, thus making it easier to study the role of this steroid in a pathway such as pain.
Suppression of one type of ecdysteroid receptor resulted in decreased response to painful mechanical and thermal stimuli. Suppression of another ecdysteroid receptor caused a reduction in the branching and length of nociceptor neuron dendrites. Therefore, the receptors for this hormone may modulate the sensitivity of nociceptor neurons and may indicate possible targets for analgesic drug development for humans.
The work done on this paper was spearheaded by Aidan McParland 鈥15, B.S., and included the collaborative efforts of other Ganter lab members: Taylor Follansbee 鈥15, M.S.; Gwendolyn Vesenka Ph.D. and Alexandra Panaitiu 鈥11, B.S.