In neurons a well-defined source of signaling Ca(2+) is the extracellular medium. However, as in all metazoan cells, Ca(2+) is also stored in endoplasmic reticular compartments inside neurons. The relevance of these stores in neuronal function has been debatable. The Orai gene encodes a channel that helps refill these stores from the extracellular medium in non-excitable cells through a process called store-operated Ca(2+) entry or SOCE. Recent findings have shown that raising the level of Orai or its activator STIM, and consequently SOCE in neurons, can restore flight to varying extents to Drosophila mutants for an intracellular Ca(2+)-release channel - the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (InsP(3)R). Both intracellular Ca(2+)-release and SOCE appear to function in neuro-modulatory domains of the flight circuit during development and acute flight. These findings raise exciting new possibilities for the role of SOCE in vertebrate motor circuit function and the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders where intracellular Ca(2+) signaling has been implicated as causative.
Keywords: 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor; Orai; STIM; central pattern generator; inositol; neuromodulators.