Regulation of starvation-induced hyperactivity by insulin and glucagon signaling in adult Drosophila

  1. Yue Yu
  2. Rui Huang  Is a corresponding author
  3. Jie Ye
  4. Vivian Zhang
  5. Chao Wu
  6. Guo Cheng
  7. Junling Jia
  8. Liming Wang  Is a corresponding author
  1. Zhejiang University, China
  2. University of California, Berkeley, United States

Abstract

Starvation induces sustained increase in locomotion, which facilitates food localization and acquisition and hence composes an important aspect of food-seeking behavior. We investigated how nutritional states modulated starvation-induced hyperactivity in adult Drosophila. The receptor of adipokinetic hormone (AKHR), the insect analog of glucagon, was required for starvation-induced hyperactivity. AKHR was expressed in a small group of octopaminergic neurons in the brain. Silencing AKHR+ neurons and blocking octopamine signaling in these neurons eliminated starvation-induced hyperactivity, whereas activation of these neurons accelerated the onset of hyperactivity upon starvation. Neither AKHR nor AKHR+ neurons were involved in increased food consumption upon starvation, suggesting that starvation-induced hyperactivity and food consumption are independently regulated. Single cell analysis of AKHR+ neurons identified the co-expression of Drosophila insulin-like receptor (dInR), which imposed suppressive effect on starvation-induced hyperactivity. Therefore, insulin and glucagon signaling exert opposite effects on starvation-induced hyperactivity via a common neural target in Drosophila.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Yue Yu

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Rui Huang

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    For correspondence
    huangrui0716@sina.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Jie Ye

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Vivian Zhang

    Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Chao Wu

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Guo Cheng

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Junling Jia

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Liming Wang

    Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
    For correspondence
    lmwang83@zju.edu.cn
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7758-1120

Funding

Thousand Young Talents Plan of China

  • Liming Wang

National Natural Science Foundation of China (31522026)

  • Liming Wang

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2016QN81010)

  • Liming Wang

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Mani Ramaswami, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Version history

  1. Received: March 1, 2016
  2. Accepted: September 8, 2016
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: September 9, 2016 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: September 29, 2016 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2016, Yu et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Yue Yu
  2. Rui Huang
  3. Jie Ye
  4. Vivian Zhang
  5. Chao Wu
  6. Guo Cheng
  7. Junling Jia
  8. Liming Wang
(2016)
Regulation of starvation-induced hyperactivity by insulin and glucagon signaling in adult Drosophila
eLife 5:e15693.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15693

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