Journal
PLOS GENETICS
Volume 4, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000245
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- German Research Foundation [HO714/14-1]
- United States National Institute of Mental Health [MH076900]
- National Institute of Environmental Health and Safety [ES015747]
- National Eye Institute [EY03592]
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research [ROP-67480]
- Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation [Med-NSRPP-2003-105]
- Shirley & Stephen Hatos Research Foundation
- Achievement Awards for College Scientists Foundation
- American Psychological Association (RRC)
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Unlike other monoamine neurotransmitters, the mechanism by which the brain's histamine content is regulated remains unclear. In mammals, vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) are expressed exclusively in neurons and mediate the storage of histamine and other monoamines. We have studied the visual system of Drosophila melanogaster in which histamine is the primary neurotransmitter released from photoreceptor cells. We report here that a novel mRNA splice variant of Drosophila VMAT (DVMAT-B) is expressed not in neurons but rather in a small subset of glia in the lamina of the fly's optic lobe. Histamine contents are reduced by mutation of dVMAT, but can be partially restored by specifically expressing DVMAT-B in glia. Our results suggest a novel role for a monoamine transporter in glia that may be relevant to histamine homeostasis in other systems.
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