for many cellular pathways, including acetylcholine synthesis and the mevalonate pathway. The mevalonate pathway in insects leads to the synthesis of many cellular products, including prenylation that anchors proteins such as the Ras small GTPase family to lipid membranes, and juvenile hormone (Belles et al., 2005). If ethanol metabolism plays a role in the behavioral effects of ethanol exposure, it is clearly only one of many mechanisms for the the actions of ethanol, and it is likely that drugs of abuse engage specific molecular pathways through multiple means. For example, cocaine is metabolized by means that are completely distinct from ethanol, and our data and that of others show that regulation of histone deacetylases is important for the behavioral effects of both of these addictive drugs (Kumar et al., 2005).
