PLoS Genetics (May 2016)

Additive Expression of Consolidated Memory through Drosophila Mushroom Body Subsets.

  • Chu-Huai Yang,
  • Meng-Fu Maxwell Shih,
  • Ching-Ching Chang,
  • Meng-Hsuan Chiang,
  • Hsiang-Wen Shih,
  • Ya-Lun Tsai,
  • Ann-Shyn Chiang,
  • Tsai-Feng Fu,
  • Chia-Lin Wu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006061
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 5
p. e1006061

Abstract

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Associative olfactory memory in Drosophila has two components called labile anesthesia-sensitive memory and consolidated anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM). Mushroom body (MB) is a brain region critical for the olfactory memory and comprised of 2000 neurons that can be classified into αβ, α'β', and γ neurons. Previously we demonstrated that two parallel pathways mediated ARM consolidation: the serotonergic dorsal paired medial (DPM)-αβ neurons and the octopaminergic anterior paired lateral (APL)-α'β' neurons. This finding prompted us to ask how this composite ARM is retrieved. Here, we showed that blocking the output of αβ neurons and that of α'β' neurons each impaired ARM retrieval, and blocking both simultaneously had an additive effect. Knockdown of radish and octβ2R in αβ and α'β' neurons, respectively, impaired ARM. A combinatorial assay of radish mutant background rsh1 and neurotransmission blockade confirmed that ARM retrieved from α'β' neuron output is independent of radish. We identified MBON-β2β'2a and MBON-β'2mp as the MB output neurons downstream of αβ and α'β' neurons, respectively, whose glutamatergic transmissions also additively contribute to ARM retrieval. Finally, we showed that α'β' neurons could be functionally subdivided into α'β'm neurons required for ARM retrieval, and α'β'ap neurons required for ARM consolidation. Our work demonstrated that two parallel neural pathways mediating ARM consolidation in Drosophila MB additively contribute to ARM expression during retrieval.