Constitutive activity of N-β-alanyl-catecholamine ligase in insect brain

Pérez, Martín M.; Schachter, Julieta; Quesada-Allué, Luis A.

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2004.07.015

Cited by 12 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This is in good agreement with the high expression level of Drosophila ebony in the optic lobes of the fly brain (Hovemann et al, 1998;Richardt et al, 2002). Recently, Pérez et al (2004) reported constitutive activity of an "N-β-alanyl-catecholamine ligase" in the brain of the medfly Ceratitis capitata and other insect species including the cockroach Blatella germanica. Ceratitis capitata brain extracts were found to synthesize β-alanyl conjugates not only from dopamine and norepinephrine, but also from tyramine, octopamine, serotonin, and histamine (Pérez et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Recently, Pérez et al (2004) reported constitutive activity of an "N-β-alanyl-catecholamine ligase" in the brain of the medfly Ceratitis capitata and other insect species including the cockroach Blatella germanica. Ceratitis capitata brain extracts were found to synthesize β-alanyl conjugates not only from dopamine and norepinephrine, but also from tyramine, octopamine, serotonin, and histamine (Pérez et al, 2004). It is tempting to speculate that this "N-β-alanylcatecholamine ligase" activity in Ceratitis capitata is associated with Ebony protein expression.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, the inactivation of biogenic amines is achieved by alternative metabolic pathways such as N-acetylation, N-methylation, and O-sulphation (for reviews, see Wright, 1987;Vaughan, 1988;Downer, 1990;Roeder et al, 2003). In addition, the β-alanyl conjugation of biogenic amines by Ebony proteins is a novel pathway now known to be involved in the inactivation of biogenic amines in insects (Pérez et al, 2002(Pérez et al, , 2004Richardt et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular characterization of the ebony gene from the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana

Blenau¹,

Baumann²

2005

Arch Insect Biochem Physiol

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Biogenic amines are an important class of primary messengers in the central (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems and in peripheral organs. These substances regulate and modulate many physiological and behavioral processes. Various inactivation mechanisms for these substances exist to terminate biogenic amine-mediated signal transduction. In vertebrates, the enzymes monoamine oxidase and/or catechol-O-methyl-transferase are involved in these processes. In insects, however, in which both enzymes are low in abundance or absent, biogenic amines are inactivated mainly by N-acetylation or O-sulphation. In Drosophila, beta-alanyl conjugation mediated by the Ebony protein has recently been shown to be a novel and alternative pathway for biogenic amine inactivation. Here, we report the cloning of ebony cDNA (Peaebony) from a brain-specific cDNA library of the cockroach Periplaneta americana. The open reading frame encodes a protein of 860 amino acid residues (PeaEbony). The PeaEbony polypeptide shares homology to Ebony sequences from Anopheles gambiae, Apis mellifera, and Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, PeaEbony exhibits sequence similarity to a family of microbial non-ribosomal peptide synthetases. The mRNA encoding PeaEbony is highly expressed in the cockroach brain and to a lesser extent in the salivary glands. PeaEbony is, therefore, probably involved in the inactivation of various biogenic amines through beta-alanyl conjugation in the cockroach CNS. Since the salivary glands in Periplaneta are innervated by dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons, PeaEbony probably also biochemically modifies dopamine and serotonin in these acinar glands.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Molecular characterization of the ebony gene from the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana

Blenau¹,

Baumann²

2005

Arch Insect Biochem Physiol

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“…We showed that the activity in nervous tissue is constitutive during the whole life cycle (Pérez et al, 2004(Pérez et al, , 2010Schachter et al, 2007). The NBADsynthase is encoded by the gene ebony of D. melanogaster (Wright, 1987;Hovemann et al, 1998) and niger of C. capitata and is able to synthesize other b-alanylderivatives of biogenic amines (Pérez et al, 2002(Pérez et al, , 2004Richardt et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We previously analyzed the activity of NBAD-synthase, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of NBAD (Wappner et al, 1996a;Pérez et al, 2002Pérez et al, , 2004Pérez et al, , 2010Schachter et al, 2007). We demonstrated that during the life cycles of Ceratitis capitata, Drosophila melanogaster and Tenebrio molitor, the enzymatic activity related to cuticle sclerotization is periodically detected in epidermis in narrow temporal windows, during the transition from larva to pupa, from pupa to adult and in the hours following adult ecdysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%