Dissection of Hangover function during the development of ethanol tolerance and in the cellular stress response

• Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Henrike Scholz
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Biochemie und Physiologie der Tiere
• Förderung: Förderung von 2009 bis 2015
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 102110757

The goal is to understand how a cellular stress pathway might cause changes in neuronal adaptation and how these changes in turn contribute to ethanol induced behavior. Previously we have identified the hangover mutant in Drosophila. This mutant develops reduced ethanol tolerance. By phenotypic and molecular genetic analyzing the hangover mutants we have shown that the behavioral response to ethanol is on the molecular level similar in part similar to a cellular stress response to heat and oxidative stress and involves the hangover gene (Scholz et al., 2005). Key questions to address now are whether the defects are developmental or directly caused by a cellular stress response to ethanol, to define the biochemical activities of the Hangover protein that are required for tolerance, to identify possible interaction partners and to identify target genes that are regulated by Hangover. With these analyses we want to gain insight into the mechanism by which Hangover acts on the cellular level to promote the development of tolerance.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen