@article {65035, title = {Novel Complex Interactions between Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.}, journal = {Mol Neuropsychiatry}, volume = {5}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Mar 0}, pages = {13-27}, abstract = {

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been associated with schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). This review examines recent publications and novel associations between mitochondrial genes and SZ and BD. Associations of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial variants with SZ were found using gene- and pathway-based approaches. Two control region mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) SNPs, T16519C and T195C, both showed an association with SZ and BD. A review of 4 studies of A15218G located in the cytochrome B oxidase gene (CYTB, SZ = 11,311, control = 35,735) shows a moderate association with SZ ( = 2.15E-03). Another mtDNA allele A12308G was nominally associated with psychosis in BD type I subjects and SZ. The first published study testing the epistatic interaction between nuclear-encoded and mitochondria-encoded genes demonstrated evidence for potential interactions between mtDNA and the nuclear genome for BD. A similar analysis for the risk of SZ revealed significant joint effects (34 nuclear-mitochondria SNP pairs with joint effect <= 5E-07) and significant enrichment of projection neurons. The mitochondria-encoded gene CYTB was found in both the epistatic interactions for SZ and BD and the single SNP association of SZ. Future efforts considering population stratification and polygenic risk scores will test the role of mitochondrial variants in psychiatric disorders.

}, issn = {2296-9209}, doi = {10.1159/000495658}, author = {Schulmann, Anton and Ryu, Euijung and Goncalves, Vanessa and Rollins, Brandi and Christiansen, Michael and Frye, Mark A and Biernacka, Joanna and Vawter, Marquis P} } @article {4158, title = {Mutation of the Drosophila vesicular GABA transporter disrupts visual figure detection.}, journal = {The Journal of Experimental Biology}, volume = {213}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {1717-30}, abstract = {

The role of gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) release and inhibitory neurotransmission in regulating most behaviors remains unclear. The vesicular GABA transporter (VGAT) is required for the storage of GABA in synaptic vesicles and provides a potentially useful probe for inhibitory circuits. However, specific pharmacologic agents for VGAT are not available, and VGAT knockout mice are embryonically lethal, thus precluding behavioral studies. We have identified the Drosophila ortholog of the vesicular GABA transporter gene (which we refer to as dVGAT), immunocytologically mapped dVGAT protein expression in the larva and adult and characterized a dVGAT(minos) mutant allele. dVGAT is embryonically lethal and we do not detect residual dVGAT expression, suggesting that it is either a strong hypomorph or a null. To investigate the function of VGAT and GABA signaling in adult visual flight behavior, we have selectively rescued the dVGAT mutant during development. We show that reduced GABA release does not compromise the active optomotor control of wide-field pattern motion. Conversely, reduced dVGAT expression disrupts normal object tracking and figure-ground discrimination. These results demonstrate that visual behaviors are segregated by the level of GABA signaling in flies, and more generally establish dVGAT as a model to study the contribution of GABA release to other complex behaviors.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Amino Acid Sequence, Animal, Animals, Behavior, Brain, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Fixation, Ganglia, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Larva, Mice, Molecular Sequence Data, Movement, Mutation, Ocular, Protein Transport, Synaptic Vesicles, Transgenes, Vesicular Inhibitory Amino Acid Transport Proteins, Visual Perception}, issn = {1477-9145}, doi = {10.1242/jeb.036053}, author = {Fei, Hao and Chow, Dawnis M and Chen, Audrey and Romero-Calder{\'o}n, Rafael and Ong, Wei S and Ackerson, Larry C and Maidment, Nigel T and Simpson, Julie H and Frye, Mark A and Krantz, David E} } @article {2358, title = {Dynamic properties of large-field and small-field optomotor flight responses in Drosophila.}, journal = {Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology}, volume = {193}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jul}, pages = {787-99}, abstract = {

Optomotor flight control in houseflies shows bandwidth fractionation such that steering responses to an oscillating large-field rotating panorama peak at low frequency, whereas responses to small-field objects peak at high frequency. In fruit flies, steady-state large-field translation generates steering responses that are three times larger than large-field rotation. Here, we examine the optomotor steering reactions to dynamically oscillating visual stimuli consisting of large-field rotation, large-field expansion, and small-field motion. The results show that, like in larger flies, large-field optomotor steering responses peak at low frequency, whereas small-field responses persist under high frequency conditions. However, in fruit flies large-field expansion elicits higher magnitude and tighter phase-locked optomotor responses than rotation throughout the frequency spectrum, which may suggest a further segregation within the large-field pathway. An analysis of wing beat frequency and amplitude reveals that mechanical power output during flight varies according to the spatial organization and motion dynamics of the visual scene. These results suggest that, like in larger flies, the optomotor control system is organized into parallel large-field and small-field pathways, and extends previous analyses to quantify expansion-sensitivity for steering reflexes and flight power output across the frequency spectrum.

}, keywords = {Analysis of Variance, Animal, Animals, Behavior, Biological Clocks, Drosophila, Flight, Nonlinear Dynamics, Photic Stimulation, Visual Pathways}, issn = {0340-7594}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2010.06.072}, author = {Duistermars, Brian J and Reiser, Michael B and Zhu, Yan and Frye, Mark A} }