PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tim Mentel
AU  - Carsten Duch
AU  - Heike Stypa
AU  - Gerhard Wegener
AU  - Uli Müller
AU  - Hans-Joachim Pflüger
TI  - Central Modulatory Neurons Control Fuel Selection in Flight Muscle of Migratory Locust
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-04-01109.2003
DP  - 2003 Feb 15
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 1109--1113
VI  - 23
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/4/1109.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/4/1109.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2003 Feb 15; 23
AB  - Insect flight is one of the most intense and energy-demanding physiological activities. High carbohydrate oxidation rates are necessary for take-off, but, to spare the limited carbohydrate reserves, long-distance flyers, such as locusts, soon switch to lipid as the main fuel. We demonstrate that before a flight, locust muscles are metabolically poised for take-off by the release of octopamine from central modulatory dorsal unpaired median (DUM) neurons, which increases the levels of the potent glycolytic activator fructose 2,6-bisphosphate in flight muscle. Because DUM neurons innervating the flight muscles are active during rest but selectively inhibited during flight, they stimulate carbohydrate catabolism during take-off but tend to decrease muscle glycolysis during prolonged flight. cAMP-dependent protein kinase A is necessary but not sufficient for signal transduction, suggesting parallel control via a calcium-dependent pathway. Locust flight is the first reported instance of a direct and specific involvement of neuronal activity in the control of muscle glycolysis in working muscle during exercise.