H. Soehnge et al., A NEUROTRANSMITTER TRANSPORTER ENCODED BY THE DROSOPHILA INEBRIATED GENE, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 93(23), 1996, pp. 13262-13267
Behavioral and electrophysiological studies on mutants defective in th
e Drosophila inebriated (ine) gene demonstrated increased excitability
of the motor neuron, In this paper, we describe the cloning and seque
nce analysis of inc, Mutations in ine were localized on cloned DNA by
restriction mapping and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP
) mapping of ine mutants, DNA from the ine region was then used to iso
late an inc cDNA, In situ hybridization of ine transcripts to developi
ng embryos revealed expression of this gene in several cell types, inc
luding the posterior hindgut, Malpighian tubules, anal plate, garland
cells, and a subset of cells in the central nervous system. The ine cD
NA contains an open reading frame of 658 amino acids with a high degre
e of sequence similarity to members of the Na+/Cl--dependent neurotran
smitter transporter family, Members of this family catalyze the rapid
reuptake of neurotransmitters released into the synapse and thereby pl
ay key roles in controlling neuronal function. We conclude that ine mu
tations cause increased excitability of the Drosophila motor neuron by
causing the defective reuptake of the substrate neurotransmitter of t
he ine transporter and thus overstimulation of the motor neuron by thi
s neurotransmitter, From this observation comes a unique opportunity t
o perform a genetic dissection of the regulation of excitability of th
e Drosophila motor neuron.