Although some aspects of learning are well understood, little is known about the genes involved in differences in learning between species or how animals forget once they learn something. This project will investigate the "genetics of forgetting", by first determining which genes cause forgetting differences in Nasonia, a small insect suitable for efficient genetic study, and then determining how these genes function. The work has the potential to reveal new genes and mechanisms involved in memory. Species as different as insects and humans share some of the same basic mechanisms underlying memory gain and loss, so these mechanisms are likely to be broadly applicable. The discovery of genes for "forgetting" is likely to capture the imagination of both scientists and non-scientists, and will therefore contribute broadly to science education. Educational outreach builds on ongoing collaborations with Jamestown Community College. Efforts are geared towards introducing investigative learning instruction using Nasonia in both high schools and community colleges.
The insect genus Nasonia is a tractable laboratory organism with a burgeoning research toolkit. The insects quickly learn to associate novel odors with a host reward. However, memory retention following a host reward differs considerably between closely related species. In an exciting new finding, genetic regions containing reduced memory retention genes have been successfully backcrossed from the low memory retention species into the high memory retention species. The goals of this project are to clone the memory retention genes by recombination, identify how their coding and cis-regulatory regions differ, determine where and when they are expressed and whether they modulate expression of other memory genes following a learning experience, investigate their effects on memory retention using RNA interference knockdowns, and determine whether the memory retention effects generalize to other learning modes (e.g. visual stimuli, aversive stimuli). Given the genetic tools available in Nasonia and an established track record in cloning genes causing species difference, the project has a high probability of success. Data will be made available through National Center for Biological Information (NCBI) databases, the Hymenopteran database and through publication in open access journals.
