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| Research article summary (published 21 Apr 2009): |
Differential roles of the fan-shaped body and the ellipsoid body in Drosophila visual pattern memory.
Full Abstract
The central complex is a prominent structure in the Drosophila brain. Visual learning experiments in the flight simulator, with flies with genetically altered brains, revealed that two groups of horizontal neurons in one of its substructures, the fan-shaped body, were required for Drosophila visual pattern memory. However, little is known about the role of other components of the central complex for visual pattern memory. Here we show that a small set of neurons in the ellipsoid body, which is another substructure of the central complex and connected to the fan-shaped body, is also required for visual pattern memory. Localized expression of rutabaga adenylyl cyclase in either the fan-shaped body or the ellipsoid body is sufficient to rescue the memory defect of the rut(2080) mutant. We then performed RNA interference of rutabaga in either structure and found that they both were required for visual pattern memory. Additionally, we tested the above rescued flies under several visual pattern parameters, such as size, contour orientation, and vertical compactness, and revealed differential roles of the fan-shaped body and the ellipsoid body for visual pattern memory. Our study defines a complex neural circuit in the central complex for Drosophila visual pattern memory.
Author information
Author/s: Pan, Yufeng (Y); Zhou, Yanqiong (Y); Guo, Chao (C); Gong, Haiyun (H); Gong, Zhefeng (Z); Liu, Li (L);
Affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) (Learn Mem), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2009-; vol 16 (issue 5) : pp 289-95
Dates: Created 2009/04/24; Completed 2009/06/23;
PMID: 19389914, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/23/2009, IMS Date: )
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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