Saginaw Valley State University, Department of Biology, University Center, MI 48710
Fruit flies have been widely used animal models in laboratories for many centuries. Serotonin is a monoamine neurotransmitter compound that is synthesized in the neurons of all animals, including fruit flies. In the central nervous system, specific serotonergic neurons proliferate and are known to play a role in body temperature regulation, sexual behavior and feeding behavior in the fruitfly. Synthesized from the amino acid, tryptophan, serotonin production is inhibited in the presence of para-Chlorophenylalanine. In the presented study, para-Chlorophenylalanine was added to commercially available fruit fly media into which female wild-type fruit flies are allowed to oviposit eggs following mating. Larvae and adult flies were examined for behavioral and morphological effects of the inhibition of serotonin during development. Results suggest that serotonin depletion through para-Chlorophenylalanine exposure reduces negatively gravitropic behavior in the fruit fly, No effects were noted in the sex ratios of fly populations developed in the para-Chlorophenylalanine environment. Results are discussed relative to their importance in our understanding of neural function in behavior of the fly.
[Abstract (WPD)]