Publications by authors named "Tokiho Akiyama"
Light environments differ dramatically between day and night. The transition between diurnal and nocturnal visual ecology has happened repeatedly throughout evolution in many species. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the evolution of vision in recent diurnal-nocturnal transition is poorly understood.
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- Histamine is the sole neurotransmitter from arthropod photoreceptors, facilitating synaptic transmission to second-order neurons via histamine-gated chloride channels (HCLs), assumed to be consistent across insect visual systems.
- In butterflies, researchers identified two HCL candidates, PxHCLA and PxHCLB, and used whole-cell patch-clamp techniques to analyze their response to several neurotransmitters, discovering that only histamine and GABA activated both channels, with PxHCLB being more sensitive.
- Simultaneous application of histamine and GABA intensified the activation of both channels, indicating potential synergistic effects, and underscoring differences in visual processing between butterfly and fly species.
Humans show various responses to the environmental stimulus in individual levels as "physiological variations." However, it has been unclear if these are caused by genetic variations. In this study, we examined the association between the physiological variation of response to light-stimulus and genetic polymorphisms.
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