Nitric oxide synthase‐like and calmodulin‐like immunoreactivity in the visual system of wild type and white eye mutant strains of Ceratitis capitata (Diptera, Tephritidae)

Abstract The optic lobes of the medfly Ceratitis capitata have already been revealed to be a useful model for studying the involvement of nitric oxide synthase in visual functionality. The present work describes immunocytochemical reactions on the optic lobes of adult specimens of two strains that differ in eye color pigmenta tion: i.e., the wild type and a white eye mutant line, the latter ex hibiting visual alterations at the juvenile and mature stages. Im‐munoreactions were performed for nitric oxide synthase and calmodulin, which is necessary for activating nitric oxide syn thase, and a correspondence was found between the patterns of the two immunoreactions. The wild type optic lobes showed gen erally stronger nitric oxide synthase‐like and calmodulin‐like im munoreactivity with respect to the white eye ones at both stages. The labeling was present especially in the optic lobes cell layers; also somata and axons of the retina photoreceptors were stained. Changes in the immunoreactive patterns were ob...