Imprinting learning in Drosophila

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). During critical developmental stages, important environmental cues such as the face of one's mother or the smell of home are stored or "imprinted" into the memories of young animals. In this capacity, imprinting serves as an important survival mechanism and can have enduring effects on animal behaviors. Dr. Wang's laboratory has obtained evidence to demonstrate that the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits a robust form of olfactory imprinting. Exposure to a given odorant in early adulthood dramatically increases a fly's preference for that odorant at a later stage. Despite significant progress into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of olfactory imprinting in diverse species, causality between neural plasticity in specific neurons and olfactory imprinting behavior has been difficult to establish. The anatomical simplicity of Drosophila, coupled with sophisticated genetic tools for this model organism, confers unique advantages for studies linking neural activity to behavioral output. Dr. Wang and colleagues will use molecular genetics, behavioral studies, and optical imaging, to study olfactory imprinting in Drosophila. The proposed experiments aims to reveal the neural circuit underlying the imprinting behavior, which will yield insights into mechanisms of social attachment and development of individual preferences.NSF support for this project will have broader impact at several levels. First, making inroads into understanding how early experience shapes behavioral preferences can elucidate basic principles that may seed and inform future efforts in the study of imprinting in other organisms. Second, experience gained by the participants of this proposal will be vital in incorporating modern imaging techniques and quantitative analysis into the undergraduate biological curriculum. Third, the support of this project will also provide opportunities to train a new generation of scientists in a multidisciplinary approach.