Review
The role of octopamine in locusts and other arthropods

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Abstract

The biogenic amine octopamine and its biological precursor tyramine are thought to be the invertebrate functional homologues of the vertebrate adrenergic transmitters. Octopamine functions as a neuromodulator, neurotransmitter and neurohormone in insect nervous systems and prompts the whole organism to “dynamic action”. A growing number of studies suggest a prominent role for octopamine in modulating multiple physiological and behavioural processes in invertebrates, as for example the phase transition in Schistocerca gregaria. Both octopamine and tyramine exert their effects by binding to specific receptor proteins that belong to the superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors. Since these receptors do not appear to be present in vertebrates, they may present very suitable and specific insecticide and acaricide targets.

Section snippets

Evolutionary appearance of octopamine

Octopamine is one of the most abundant biogenic amines in the nervous system of invertebrates. It has been suggested that the phenolamines p-tyramine and octopamine which are found in high concentrations in Protostomes are functionally substituted by the catecholamines norepinephrine and epinephrine in higher Deuterostomes (Roeder, 1999, Blenau and Baumann, 2001, Blenau and Baumann, 2003, Pflüger and Stevenson, 2005). This assumption is supported by the similar chemical structure of these

Metabolic pathways – synthesis and degradation

An important criterion for messenger substances is that their concentrations are tightly regulated. A first regulation mechanism is the synthesis rate. The amino acid tyrosine is the starting point for the synthesis of both octopamine and its precursor, tyramine, which can also act independently as neurotransmitter (Lange, 2009). Tyrosine is transformed to tyramine by tyrosine decarboxylase (Livingstone and Tempel, 1983, Cole et al., 2005). Octopamine is then produced out of tyramine by

Distribution of octopamine in invertebrates

In the insect central nervous system, the great majority of all neurons occur as mirror image pairs. Exceptions are the efferent unpaired median neurons which seem to be involved in a multitude of specific activities and behaviours (for a review, see: Bräunig and Pflüger, 2001). Although exceptions exist, most efferent unpaired median neurons are octopaminergic (Orchard and Lange, 1985, Orchard, 1990, Stevenson and Pflüger, 1992, Monastirioti, 1999; for a review, see: Stevenson and

Physiology of octopamine

Octopamine is present in relatively high concentrations in neuronal as well as non-neuronal tissues of most invertebrate species studied and has a plethora of known functions. In the peripheral nervous system, octopamine modulates the activity and energy metabolism of flight muscles, peripheral organs (such as fat body, oviduct and hemocytes), and almost all sense organs (Goosey and Candy, 1980, Orchard and Lange, 1985, Orchard et al., 1993, Adamo et al., 1995). High levels of octopamine,

Role of octopamine in locust phase transition

In our test animal, S. gregaria, we are especially interested in the possible role of octopamine during the phase transition in which a harmless solitarious animal becomes a voracious pest insect. The first step in this process of gregarisation is a behavioural switch, which is crucial for further physiological and morphological change (for reviews, see Verlinden et al., 2009, Pener and Simpson, 2009). Serotonin was proven to be a critical factor in this behavioural change (Anstey et al., 2009

Receptor pharmacology

Similar to other biogenic amines, octopamine and tyramine function by binding to specific membrane proteins that are members of the seven transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily, more specifically the rhodopsin-like family (Roeder, 1999, Blenau and Baumann, 2001). Insect octopamine receptors were originally classified on the basis of second messenger changes induced in a variety of intact tissue preparations (Evans, 1981, Roeder, 1990, Evans and Robb, 1993, Hiripi et al.,

Octopamine and tyramine receptors in locusts

Although the physiology and action mechanisms of octopamine and other biogenic amines were thoroughly investigated in both S. gregaria and Locusta migratoria (for a review, see Roeder, 2002), until recently only one aminergic receptor type was actually cloned and characterised in locusts. Vanden Broeck and co-workers successfully picked up a tyramine receptor (Tyr-Loc) in the migratory locust and functionally expressed it in both Drosophila Schneider 2 and murine erythroleukemia cells (Vanden

Concluding remarks

Although much work has already been performed, octopamine research promises to reveal important new insights into various fields in the future. Among these are control of behaviour, learning and memory, regulation of the immune response and orchestration of complex metabolic pathways. In addition, increasing evidence suggests that tyramine is a neuroactive chemical in its own right, with diverse physiological and behavioural roles (for reviews, see: Blenau and Baumann, 2003, Lange, 2009).

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the German Research Foundation (GRK837), the Interuniversity Attraction Poles program (Belgian Science Policy Grant (P6/14), the Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO-Flanders) and the K.U. Leuven Research Foundation (GOA 2005/09) for financial support. H.V., R.V., E.M. and L.B. were supported by a Ph.D. fellowship of the IWT (Instituut voor de aanmoediging van Innovatie door wetenschap en technologie in Vlaanderen).

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