There is adaptive value in the ability of animals to learn and remember based on experience. Understanding the genetics of natural variation that supports experience-dependent behavioral plasticity greatly expands our perspective on how variation in these traits arises within a species. Through a combination of molecular biological tools for examining and mapping genetic material and sophisticated behavioral assays, this research program identifies most or all of the large-impact positions on the chromosome, or loci, that affect learning and memory traits in a genetically tractable model organism, the fruit fly. The results advance our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie learning and memory in naturally varying populations. The project also provides research opportunities in neuroscience, genetics, and bioinformatics for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including students from groups generally under-represented in science and technology.
Selection experiments have shown that natural genetic variants can play a critical role in the evolution of learning and memory. However, attempts to link specific variants to the selected traits have largely failed. Novel genetic panels and behavioral paradigms for Drosophila melanogaster now make it possible to better understand natural variants that are important for these traits on a genomic scale. The objectives of this proposal are addressed through two specific aims. Aim 1: Fully characterize loci that are important for Place learning and memory. Aim 2: Determine whether specific genetic loci that impact Place learning and memory also influence Olfactory learning and memory. To achieve these aims, a newly developed high-resolution quantitative genetic panel is applied to a set of behavioral problems that have traditionally been examined separately and with different approaches. Different from previous work, this program examines learning and memory in both classical and operant conditioning paradigms to test the hypothesis that there are common core natural genetic variants that influence learning and memory in general. By identifying and validating key genetic variants that influence place and olfactory learning and memory, the proposed experiments significantly improve our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of learning and memory in natural populations. Results provide critical insights into the natural genetic variants that influence learning and memory in multiple contexts, and into the evolution of learning and memory.
