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研究発表を行った学会；
・第３２回日本分子生物学会
　２００９年１２月　９日〜１２日（横浜）

タイトル；Dopamine modulates temperature preferences and energy homeostasis in Drosophila.
　
発表者；　上野　太郎　氏
　　　（熊本大学　発生医学研究所　多能性幹細胞分野）

Abstract；
Obesity has been described as one of the greatest threat to human health. For the treatment of obesity, appropriate energy balance between intake (diet restriction) and expenditure (physical exercise) is indispensable. In mammals, thermogenetic effects of catecholamines have been studied. Some catecholamine reuptake inhibitors, like bupropion, increases energy expenditure and now used as anti-obesity drug.
These homoiothermal animals can actively regulate their body temperature with physiological responses such as sweating and shivering. On the other hand, poikilotherms, like Drosophila, change their body temperature passively as a result of heat exchange with the surrounding environment. Accordingly, they must move to environment of optimal temperature desired for their metabolic rate. Recently it has been shown that some mutants show higher metabolic rate and preference for lower temperature. Here we show the dopamine transoporter mutant fumin shows increased energy expenditure and preference for the low temperature. These phenotypes of fumin are rescued by the expression of dopamine transporter. Furthermore, an administration of 3-iodo-tyrosine (inhibitor of the rate limitting enzyme for dopamine synthesis) induced thermophilic behavior. These results provide an evidence that dopaminergic signaling has function in the regulation of energy homeostasis in fruit fly and highlights a similarity between insects and mammals regarding the molecular basis of metabolic regulation.