title: Genome-Wide Association Analyses Point to Candidate Genes for Electric Shock Avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster.
abstract: Electric shock is a common stimulus for nociception-research and the most widely used reinforcement in aversive associative learning experiments. Yet, nothing is known about the mechanisms it recruits at the periphery. To help fill this gap, we undertook a genome-wide association analysis using 38 inbred Drosophila melanogaster strains, which avoided shock to varying extents. We identified 514 genes whose expression levels and/ or sequences co-varied with shock avoidance scores. We independently scrutinized 14 of these genes using mutants, validating the effect of 7 of them on shock avoidance. This emphasizes the value of our candidate gene list as a guide for follow-up research. In addition, by integrating our association results with external protein-protein interaction data we obtained a shock avoidance-associated network of 38 genes. Both this network and the original candidate list contained a substantial number of genes that affect mechanosensory bristles, which are hair-like organs distributed across the fly's body. These results may point to a potential role for mechanosensory bristles in shock sensation. Thus, we not only provide a first list of candidate genes for shock avoidance, but also point to an interesting new hypothesis on nociceptive mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Appel
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Microarray Applications, IZKF, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Claus-Jürgen
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Scholz
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Institute of Human Genetics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dittrich
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: König
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bockstaller
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.
authors.forename: Tuba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oguz
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Afshin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khalili
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Antwi-Adjei
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Chemistry, Butenandt Institute and LMU Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Tamas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Chemistry, Butenandt Institute and LMU Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Margulies
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany; Tohoku University Graduate School of Life Sciences, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.affiliation: Research Group Molecular Systems Biology of Learning, Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yarali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D008124:Locomotion; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements