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Journal of Experimental Biology 114,307-328 (1985)
Published by Company of Biologists 1985

Serotonin and the Control of Salivation in the Blowfly Calliphora

Barry Andrew Trimmer ¹

¹ University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge, England: Neurobiology Department, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A.

The possibility that serotonin acts as a neurohormone stimulating salivation in the blowfly Calliphora vicina was studied by investigation of salivation induced by injections of high-potassium saline. Induced salivation is rapid and appears to be mediated by an active factor released into the haemolymph (High Potassium Salivary Gland Factor: HKSGF) since it is antagonized by cadmium (a calcium channel blocker) and by gramine (a serotonin-receptor blocker). The action of HKSGF on salivary glands in vitro is indistinguishable from that of serotonin: (a) it generates serotoninlike transepithelial potential changes, (b) its effect on salivation is antagonized by gramine, (c) it is as heat stable as serotonin, (d) it has the same solubility in a variety of organic solvents, (e) it is unaffected by incubation with leucine aminopeptidase or trypsin and (d) it is inactivated by rat liver monoamine oxidase type A (a serotonin deaminating enzyme).

Radioenzyme assay of haemolymph from high-potassium injected flies shows that the amount of serotonin present could account for all of the retrievable bioactivity.

Significant amounts of serotonin were found in the cerebral ganglion, the thoracic ganglion and nerves attached to the thoracic ganglion. Nerve sectioning experiments demonstrated that the abdominal nerves and the anterior nerves supplying the neck muscles are not involved in the normal salivatory response. However the cerebral-thoracic connective must be intact and it is suggested that release of serotonin is effected close to the main body of the thoracic ganglion. Some of the implications of the neurohormonal role of serotonin are discussed.

Key words: Serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, insects, Calliphora, neurohormones.

Accepted on April 23, 1984