1. Academic Validation
  2. The Calmodulin-interacting peptide Pcp4a regulates feeding state-dependent behavioral choice in zebrafish

The Calmodulin-interacting peptide Pcp4a regulates feeding state-dependent behavioral choice in zebrafish

  • Neuron. 2024 Jan 23:S0896-6273(24)00001-1. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.01.001.
Margherita Zaupa 1 Nagarjuna Nagaraj 2 Anna Sylenko 1 Herwig Baier 3 Suphansa Sawamiphak 4 Alessandro Filosa 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), 13092 Berlin, Germany; Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Biology, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
  • 2 Biochemistry Core Facility, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
  • 3 Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
  • 4 Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), 13092 Berlin, Germany.
  • 5 Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), 13092 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: alessandro.filosa@mdc-berlin.de.
Abstract

Animals constantly need to judge the valence of an object in their environment: is it potential food or a threat? The brain makes fundamental decisions on the appropriate behavioral strategy by integrating external information from sensory organs and internal signals related to physiological needs. For example, a hungry animal may take more risks than a satiated one when deciding to approach or avoid an object. Using a proteomic profiling approach, we identified the Calmodulin-interacting peptide Pcp4a as a key regulator of foraging-related decisions. Food intake reduced abundance of protein and mRNA of pcp4a via dopamine D2-like receptor-mediated repression of Adenylate Cyclase. Accordingly, deleting the pcp4a gene made zebrafish larvae more risk averse in a binary decision assay. Strikingly, neurons in the tectum became less responsive to prey-like visual stimuli in pcp4a mutants, thus biasing the behavior toward avoidance. This study pinpoints a molecular mechanism modulating behavioral choice according to internal state.

Keywords

Pcp4a; behavior; decision-making; dopamine; escape; hunger; internal states; prey capture; tectum; zebrafish.

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