Natural polymorphism affecting learning and memory in Drosophila.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_28C4936BF476
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Natural polymorphism affecting learning and memory in Drosophila.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Author(s)
Mery F., Belay A.T., So A.K., Sokolowski M.B., Kawecki T.J.
ISSN
0027-8424[print], 0027-8424[linking]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2007
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
104
Number
32
Pages
13051-13055
Language
english
Abstract
Knowing which genes contribute to natural variation in learning and memory would help us understand how differences in these cognitive traits evolve among populations and species. We show that a natural polymorphism at the foraging (for) locus, which encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), affects associative olfactory learning in Drosophila melanogaster. In an assay that tests the ability to associate an odor with mechanical shock, flies homozygous for one natural allelic variant of this gene (forR) showed better short-term but poorer long-term memory than flies homozygous for another natural allele (fors). The fors allele is characterized by reduced PKG activity. We showed that forR-like levels of both short-term learning and long-term memory can be induced in fors flies by selectively increasing the level of PKG in the mushroom bodies, which are centers of olfactory learning in the fly brain. Thus, the natural polymorphism at for may mediate an evolutionary tradeoff between short- and long-term memory. The respective strengths of learning performance of the two genotypes seem coadapted with their effects on foraging behavior: forR flies move more between food patches and so could particularly benefit from fast learning, whereas fors flies are more sedentary, which should favor good long-term memory.
Keywords
Alleles, Animals, Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinases/genetics, Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinases/physiology, Drosophila/genetics, Ecology, Learning, Memory, Polymorphism, Genetic
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
19/11/2007 9:56
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:08
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