High impact information on VAChT

• The requirement for acetylcholine signaling exists before photoreceptor neurons form synaptic connections and does not require the function of vesicular acetylcholine transporter protein [1].
• RNase protection analysis indicates that all Drosophila VAChT specific transcripts contain the shared first exon and suggests common transcriptional control for ChAT and VAChT [2].
• These features of the VAChT 5'-UTR region suggest that a ribosome scanning model may not be used for VAChT translation initiation [2].
• We identify two mRNA splice variants (DVMAT-A and B) that differ at their C-terminus, the domain responsible for endocytosis of mammalian VMAT and VAChT [3].

Anatomical context of VAChT

• The Drosophila cholinergic locus is composed of two distinct genetic functions: choline acetyltransferase (ChAT; EC 2.3.1.6), the enzyme catalyzing biosynthesis of neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh), and the vesicular ACh transporter (VAChT), the synaptic vesicle membrane protein which pumps transmitter into vesicles [2].
• All ChAT/VAChT-ir boutons form divergent synapses upon multitudinous surrounding Kenyon cell dendrites [4].

Other interactions of VAChT

• Both genes share a common first exon and the remainder of the VAChT gene contains a single coding exon residing entirely within the first intron of ChAT [2].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of VAChT

• Complementation tests with a Cha mutant allele and rescue experiments using a transgenic Vacht minigene have revealed that two of these three mutations are nonconditional lethal alleles of Vacht (Vacht(1) and Vacht(2) ) [5].

References