Memory through metamorphosis in normal and mutant Drosophila.
To establish that a stable, long-lasting form of memory exists in Drosophila, we trained third-instar larvae by electroshocking them in the presence of a specific odor using a Pavlovian conditioning procedure. We show that conditioned odor avoidance produced in larvae still was present in adults 8 d later. Such memory through metamorphosis was specific to the temporal pairing of odor and shock; presentations of odors alone or shock alone did not produce a change. Thus, the memory involved associative processes. We also show that similar training of the single-gene memory mutants dunce and amnesiac did not yield any detectable learning in larvae or memory retention in adults, suggesting that these mutations interfere with long-term memory (LTM) formation even if LTM is induced independently of earlier memory retention processes.
Tully
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Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254.
Cambiazo
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Kruse
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D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008675:Metamorphosis, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D012016:Reference Values; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology