Insulin signaling is acutely required for long-term memory in Drosophila

Memory formation has been shown recently to be dependent on energy status in Drosophila. A well-established energy sensor is the insulin signaling (InS) pathway. Previous studies in various animal models including human have revealed the role of insulin levels in short-term memory but its role in lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Daniel Brent Chambers, Alaura eAndroschuk, Cory eRosenfelt, Steven eLanger, Mark eHarding, Francois eBolduc
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Neural Circuits
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Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncir.2015.00008/full
Description
Summary:Memory formation has been shown recently to be dependent on energy status in Drosophila. A well-established energy sensor is the insulin signaling (InS) pathway. Previous studies in various animal models including human have revealed the role of insulin levels in short-term memory but its role in long-term memory remains less clear. We therefore investigated genetically the spatial and temporal role of InS using the olfactory learning and long-term memory model in Drosophila. We found that InS is involved in both learning and memory. InS in the mushroom body is required for learning and long-term memory whereas long-term memory specifically is impaired after InS signaling disruption in the ellipsoid body, where it regulates the level of p70s6k, a downstream target of InS and a marker of protein synthesis. Finally, we show also that InS is acutely required for long-term memory formation in adult flies.
ISSN:1662-5110