ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Comparative Immunology
This article is part of the Research TopicRegulation of Innate Immunity Response: from Drosophila to HumansView all 9 articles
Octopamine modulates the innate immune response in Drosophila melanogaster
Provisionally accepted
- 1Forschungszentrum Borstel Leibniz Lungenzentrum, Borstel, Germany
- 2Zoophysiology II, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
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Hormones such as Octopamine, the functional equivalent of noradrenaline in invertebrates, modulate the immune system. In our extensive study of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, we examined the role of the major octopamine receptors in various aspects of the immune response. Our research revealed reduced survival and impaired bacterial clearance in systemic infections in flies deficient in expression of one of the two octopamine receptors, Octb1R and Octb2R. This reduced immune competence was associated with increased bacterial persistence after infection, presumably via modulation of phagocytosis and AMP expression. Furthermore, Octb1R-and Octb2R-ko animals showed decreased phagocytic activity of their hemocytes, a finding we demonstrated in vivo and in vitro. In contrast, Octb1R and Octb2R deficiency increased the induction of some essential AMP genes, suggesting a dampening effect of the hormone. In conclusion, our comprehensive study confirms the decisive influence of octopamine on the immune system's performance by differentially modulating innate immune modules.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptide, biogenic amine, Drosophila immunity, hemocyte, Octopamine, Phagocytosis
Received: 07 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Uliczka, Papenmeier, Höschler, Wagner, Roeder and Heine. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Thomas Roeder
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