Pain is a significant medical concern and represents a major unmet clinical need. The ability to perceive and react to tissue-damaging stimuli is essential in order to maintain bodily integrity in the face of environmental danger. To prevent damage the systems that detect noxious stimuli are therefore under strict evolutionary pressure. We developed a high-throughput behavioral method to identify genes contributing to thermal nociception in the fruit fly and have reported a large-scale screen that identified the Ca²⁺ channel straightjacket (stj) as a conserved regulator of thermal nociception. Here we present the minimal anatomical and neuronal requirements for Drosophila to avoid noxious heat in our novel behavioral paradigm. Bioinformatics analysis of our whole genome data set revealed 23 genes implicated in Ca²⁺ signaling that are required for noxious heat avoidance. One of these genes, the conserved thermoreceptor TrpA1, was confirmed as a bona fide "pain" gene in both adult and larval fly nociception paradigms. The nociceptive function of TrpA1 required expression within the Drosophila nervous system, specifically within nociceptive multi-dendritic (MD) sensory neurons. Therefore, our analysis identifies the channel TRPA1 as a conserved regulator of nociception.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
4
2%
Other
12
5%
Unknown
55
24%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 June 2019.
All research outputs
#11,459,044
of 34,362,729 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#98,556
of 224,527 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#63,244
of 173,527 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#1,336
of 2,853 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,362,729 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 65th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 224,527 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 173,527 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 61% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 2,853 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 49th percentile – i.e., 49% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
