Unconventional sex: fresh approaches to courtship learning

Mehren, Jennifer E.; Ejima, Aki; Griffith, Leslie C.

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2004.10.012

Cited by 51 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…For example, to determine which aminergic neurons cause the increase in courtship that we observe, any number of GAL4 drivers that include, but are not absolutely specific for aminergic cells in the CNS may be employed. 11,12,85,86 Finally, we suggest that flies overexpressing DVMAT-A may provide a genetic model for the study of amine-linked changes in motor activity and other complex behavior. Importantly, dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways also play a critical role in regulating motor activity and other stereotypic behavioral patterns of mammals, 87 and in humans, aminergic agents are used in treatment of depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and tic-related disorders such as Tourette's syndrome.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overexpression of the Drosophila vesicular monoamine transporter increases motor activity and courtship but decreases the behavioral response to cocaine

Chang¹,

Grygoruk²,

Es³

et al. 2005

Mol Psychiatry

114

134

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Aminergic signaling pathways have been implicated in a variety of neuropsychiatric illnesses, but the mechanisms by which these pathways influence complex behavior remain obscure. Vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) have been shown to regulate the amount of monoamine neurotransmitter that is stored and released from synaptic vesicles in mammalian systems, and an increase in their expression has been observed in bipolar patients. The model organism Drosophila melanogaster provides a powerful, but underutilized genetic system for studying how dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5HT) may influence behavior. We show that a Drosophila isoform of VMAT (DVMAT-A) is expressed in both dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons in the adult Drosophila brain. Overexpression of DVMAT-A in these cells potentiates stereotypic grooming behaviors and locomotion and can be reversed by reserpine, which blocks DVMAT activity, and haloperidol, a DA receptor antagonist. We also observe a prolongation of courtship behavior, a decrease in successful mating and a decrease in fertility, suggesting a role for aminergic circuits in the modulation of sexual behaviors. Finally, we find that DMVAT-A overexpression decreases the fly's sensitivity to cocaine, suggesting that the synaptic machinery responsible for this behavior may be downregulated. DVMAT transgenes may be targeted to additional neuronal pathways using standard Drosophila techniques, and our results provide a novel paradigm to study the mechanisms by which monoamines regulate complex behaviors relevant to neuropsychiatric illness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overexpression of the Drosophila vesicular monoamine transporter increases motor activity and courtship but decreases the behavioral response to cocaine

Chang¹,

Grygoruk²,

Es³

et al. 2005

Mol Psychiatry

114

134

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…When the task is made more complex by the addition of irrelevant sensory stimuli, flies can still learn the relevant predictive cue [Liu et al, 1999]. In an even more complex form of behavioral plasticity, when the sexual advances of a male fruit fly are rebuffed by a nonreceptive female, the male responds with a prolonged reduction in his courtship activity (courtship conditioning) [Tompkins et al, 1983;Mehren et al, 2004].…”

Section: Rationale For Studying Mr In Drosophilamentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental retardation genes in drosophila: New approaches to understanding and treating developmental brain disorders

Restifo

2005

Ment. Retard. Dev. Disabil. Res. Rev.

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Drosophila melanogaster is emerging as a valuable genetic model system for the study of mental retardation (MR). MR genes are remarkably similar between humans and fruit flies. Cognitive behavioral assays can detect reductions in learning and memory in flies with mutations in MR genes. Neuroanatomical methods, including some at single-neuron resolution, are helping to reveal the cellular bases of faulty brain development caused by MR gene mutations. Drosophila fragile X mental retardation 1 (dfmr1) is the fly counterpart of the human gene whose malfunction causes fragile X syndrome. Research on the fly gene is leading the field in molecular mechanisms of the gene product's biological function and in pharmacological rescue of brain and behavioral phenotypes. Future work holds the promise of using genetic pathway analysis and primary neuronal culture methods in Drosophila as tools for drug discovery for a wide range of MR and related disorders.

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“…The Drosophila mushroom body (MB) is known to regulate behavioral and physiological functions that range from olfactory learning and courtship conditioning to decision making under uncertain conditions (Heisenberg 2003;Margulies et al 2005;Akalai et al 2006;Farris 2013;Guven-Ozkan and Davis 2014). Courtship conditioning in Drosophila is a complex behavioral learning paradigm that requires multimodal sensory input involving chemosensory, mechanosensory, visual, and olfactory pathways and is thus well suited to study experience-dependent synaptic plasticity (Dubnau and Tully 2001;Mehren et al 2004;Keene and Waddell 2007;Busto et al 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Epigenetic Control of Learning and Memory inDrosophilaby Tip60 HAT Action

Xu¹,

Wilf²,

Menon³

et al. 2014

Genetics

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Disruption of epigenetic gene control mechanisms in the brain causes significant cognitive impairment that is a debilitating hallmark of most neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Histone acetylation is one of the best characterized of these epigenetic mechanisms that is critical for regulating learning-and memory-associated gene expression profiles, yet the specific histone acetyltransferases (HATs) that mediate these effects have yet to be fully characterized. Here, we investigate an epigenetic role for the HAT Tip60 in learning and memory formation using the Drosophila CNS mushroom body (MB) as a well-characterized cognition model. We show that Tip60 is endogenously expressed in the Kenyon cells, the intrinsic neurons of the MB, and in the MB axonal lobes. Targeted loss of Tip60 HAT activity in the MB causes thinner and shorter axonal lobes while increasing Tip60 HAT levels cause no morphological defects. Functional consequences of both loss and gain of Tip60 HAT levels in the MB are evidenced by defects in immediate-recall memory. Our ChIP-Seq analysis reveals that Tip60 target genes are enriched for functions in cognitive processes, and, accordingly, key genes representing these pathways are misregulated in the Tip60 HAT mutant fly brain. Remarkably, we find that both learning and immediate-recall memory deficits that occur under AD-associated, amyloid precursor protein (APP)-induced neurodegenerative conditions can be effectively rescued by increasing Tip60 HAT levels specifically in the MB. Together, our findings uncover an epigenetic transcriptional regulatory role for Tip60 in cognitive function and highlight the potential of HAT activators as a therapeutic option for neurodegenerative disorders.

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Unconventional sex: fresh approaches to courtship learning

Cited by 51 publications

References 44 publications

Overexpression of the Drosophila vesicular monoamine transporter increases motor activity and courtship but decreases the behavioral response to cocaine

Overexpression of the Drosophila vesicular monoamine transporter increases motor activity and courtship but decreases the behavioral response to cocaine

Mental retardation genes in drosophila: New approaches to understanding and treating developmental brain disorders

Epigenetic Control of Learning and Memory inDrosophilaby Tip60 HAT Action

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