Drosophila cdk5 is needed for locomotive behavior and NMJ elaboration,but seems dispensable for synaptic transmission |
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| Authors: | Alexander E. Kissler Nina Pettersson Andreas Frölich Stephan J. Sigrist Beat Suter |
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| Affiliation: | 1. University of Bern, Institute of Cell Biology, Baltzerstrasse 4, CH‐3012 Bern, Switzerland;2. European Neuroscience Institute, Grisebachstr. 5, 37077 G?ttingen, Germany;3. Genetik. Institut für Biologie, FU Berlin, Arnimallee 7, 14195 Berlin, Germany;4. NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, Charité Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Cyclin‐dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) functions in postmitotic neuronal cells and play roles in cell differentiation, cell migration, axonal guidance, and synaptic function. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila cdk5 is dispensable for adult viability and fertility, a feature that allows us to study its physiological function in the whole animal model. For the adult, cdk5 is needed for proper locomotion and flight performance. Larvae lacking cdk5 in the presynaptic tissue display abnormal crawling motion, and their neuromuscular junctions (NMJ) are elongated and contain a higher number of boutons that are smaller. As a result of these two counteracting effects, the total synaptic area/NMJ is similar to wild type, leading to normal synaptic transmission, indicating that a compensatory mechanism is capable of correcting the problem caused by the lack of cdk5. futsch, the Drosophila MAP1B homolog, is also involved in NMJ morphogenesis, and analysis of the NMJ phenotype of the double mutant futschK68; cdk5? indicates that cdk5 is epistatic to futsch in this process. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2009 |
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| Keywords: | Cdk5 NMJ locomotion neurobiology Drosophila |
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