Violet-light suppression of thermogenesis by opsin 5 hypothalamic neurons

Kevin X. Zhang, Shane D’Souza, Brian A. Upton, Stace Kernodle, Shruti Vemaraju, Gowri Nayak, Kevin D. Gaitonde, Amanda L. Holt, Courtney D. Linne, April N. Smith, Nathan T. Petts, Matthew Batie, Rajib Mukherjee, Durgesh Tiwari, Ethan D. Buhr, Russell N. Gelder, Christina Gross, Alison Sweeney, Joan Sanchez-Gurmaches, Randy J. Seeley and Richard A. Lang ()
Additional contact information
Kevin X. Zhang: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Shane D’Souza: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Brian A. Upton: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Stace Kernodle: University of Michigan, School of Public Health
Shruti Vemaraju: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Gowri Nayak: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Kevin D. Gaitonde: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Amanda L. Holt: Yale University
Courtney D. Linne: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
April N. Smith: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Nathan T. Petts: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Matthew Batie: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Rajib Mukherjee: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Durgesh Tiwari: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Ethan D. Buhr: University of Washington Medical School
Russell N. Gelder: University of Washington Medical School
Christina Gross: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Alison Sweeney: Yale University
Joan Sanchez-Gurmaches: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Randy J. Seeley: University of Michigan, School of Public Health
Richard A. Lang: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Nature, 2020, vol. 585, issue 7825, 420-425

Abstract: Abstract The opsin family of G-protein-coupled receptors are used as light detectors in animals. Opsin 5 (also known as neuropsin or OPN5) is a highly conserved opsin that is sensitive to visible violet light1,2. In mice, OPN5 is a known photoreceptor in the retina3 and skin4 but is also expressed in the hypothalamic preoptic area (POA)5. Here we describe a light-sensing pathway in which POA neurons that express Opn5 regulate thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT). We show that Opn5 is expressed in glutamatergic warm-sensing POA neurons that receive synaptic input from several thermoregulatory nuclei. We further show that Opn5 POA neurons project to BAT and decrease its activity under chemogenetic stimulation. Opn5-null mice show overactive BAT, increased body temperature, and exaggerated thermogenesis when cold-challenged. Moreover, violet photostimulation during cold exposure acutely suppresses BAT temperature in wild-type mice but not in Opn5-null mice. Direct measurements of intracellular cAMP ex vivo show that Opn5 POA neurons increase cAMP when stimulated with violet light. This analysis thus identifies a violet light-sensitive deep brain photoreceptor that normally suppresses BAT thermogenesis.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2683-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:585:y:2020:i:7825:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2683-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2683-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().