Investigation of Fasting-dependent Learning in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Obesity is one of the major risk factors for chronic diseases Food restriction is considered as a good way of reducing the onset of diseases and in promoting health among different species However our knowledge of food restriction in cognition and neuronal functions still in its infancy and remains to be established Here we used aversive olfactory conditioning and confocal imaging techniques to evaluate food restriction effects on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster We showed that mild fasting before conditioning enhance learning performance in young flies and such enhancement is protein synthesis-dependent and required both sweet and energy deprivation Reduced phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway in dopaminergic protocerebral anterior medial (PAM) cluster is accountable for this fasting-dependent learning Blocking synaptic endocytosis in dopaminergic PAM neurons ellipsoid body (EB) and mushroom body (MB) ? neurons impedes the fasting-dependent learning formation Our results reveal part of the circuitry of fasting-dependent learning and the new role of dopaminergic PAM neurons

Date of Award	2018 Aug 29
Original language	English
Supervisor	HsuehCheng Chinag (Supervisor)