Molecular aspects of the serotonergic system in the cricket CNS: implication in the adaptive modulation of behavior

摘要

Serotonin (5-HT) modulates various aspects of behaviors in animals. We use the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus as a model animal to study the neural basis of the adaptive modulation of behavior in the insect microbrain system. In this paper, we examined genes involved in 5-HT synthesis and transduction in the cricket central nervous system (CNS). As a result, three genes involved in 5-HT synthesis and four 5-HT receptor genes were identified. Expression analysis of the 5-HT related genes revealed that the 5-HT system is widely distributed in the cricket.