title: Experience-dependent plasticity of the optomotor response in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: Experience in early life can affect the development of the nervous system. There is now evidence that experience-dependent plasticity exists in adult insects. To uncover the molecular basis of plasticity, an invertebrate model, such as Drosophila melanogaster, is a powerful tool, as many established genetic and molecular methods can be applied. To establish a model system in which behavioral plasticity can be examined, we investigated the optomotor response, a behavior common to most sight-reliant animals, in Drosophila and found that the response could be modified by the level of light during rearing. The angle turned by the head in response to a moving stimulus was used to quantify the response. Deprivation of light increased the response to low-contrast stimuli in wild-type Drosophila at 4 days after eclosion and this plastic change did not appear in rutabaga, a known mutant defective in short-term memory. In addition, the change was transient and was markedly decreased at 6 days after eclosion. Further, we found that Dark-flies, which have been kept in constant darkness for more than 50 years, showed a higher response to low-contrast stimuli even at 6 days after eclosion compared to wild type and this characteristic was not lost in Dark-flies placed in a normal light environment for 2 generations, suggesting that this high response has a hereditary nature. Thus, our model system can be used to examine how the environment affects behaviors.
authors: Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology, School of Life Sciences, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors: Akiko
authors: A
authors: Kikuchi
authors: Shumpei
authors: S
authors: Ohashi
authors: Naoyuki
authors: N
authors: Fuse
authors: Toshiaki
authors: T
authors: Ohta
authors: Marina
authors: M
authors: Suzuki
authors: Yoshinori
authors: Y
authors: Suzuki
authors: Tomoyo
authors: T
authors: Fujita
authors: Takuya
authors: T
authors: Miyamoto
authors: Toru
authors: T
authors: Aonishi
authors: Hiroyoshi
authors: H
authors: Miyakawa
authors: Takako
authors: T
authors: Morimoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003624:Darkness; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D008027:Light; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular