Release of Octopamine From the Photomotor Neurones of the Larval Firefly Lanterns

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Abstract
The biogenic amine, octopamine, has been proposed as the transmitter in the firefly light organ (Evans, 1980; Robertson, 1981). Whereas initial studies implicated adrenaline (Smalley, 1965; Carlson, 1968a), octopamine was found to be more potent in inducing luminescence than any amine other than synephrine (Carlson, 1968b). Octopamine, but not synephrine, was found in adult lantern segments (Robertson & Carlson, 1976; Copeland & Robertson, 1982) and in larval lantern tissue (Christensen, Sherman, McCaman & Carlson, 1983). Evidence that cyclic nucleotides mediate the effect of octopamine was obtained by Oertel & Case (1976). An octopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase has been found in the larval lantern and application of exogenous octopamine strongly stimulates cyclic AMP production in adult (Nathanson, 1979) and larval (Nathanson & Hunnicutt, 1979) light organs.