Natural polymorphism affecting learning and memory in Drosophila
Edited by Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved June 11, 2007
Commentary
August 21, 2007
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.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from Swiss National Science Foundation and Roche Research Foundation (T.J.K.); an Assistive Technology Infusion Project Grant from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (to F.M.); grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; and the Canada Research Chair Program (to M.B.S.). We thank L. Sygnarski for assistance with the experiments; J. D. Levine for the GAL4 lines (University of Toronto); K. R. Kaun for crossing the GAL4 drivers into sitter genetic backgrounds; and J. D. Levine, R. Stocker, A. Thum, C. J. Reaume, L. Rowe, and three referees for comments.
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© 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
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Received: March 29, 2007
Published online: August 7, 2007
Published in issue: August 7, 2007
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from Swiss National Science Foundation and Roche Research Foundation (T.J.K.); an Assistive Technology Infusion Project Grant from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (to F.M.); grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; and the Canada Research Chair Program (to M.B.S.). We thank L. Sygnarski for assistance with the experiments; J. D. Levine for the GAL4 lines (University of Toronto); K. R. Kaun for crossing the GAL4 drivers into sitter genetic backgrounds; and J. D. Levine, R. Stocker, A. Thum, C. J. Reaume, L. Rowe, and three referees for comments.
Notes
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0702923104/DC1.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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