The Genetics of Natural Variation in Memory Retention in Nasonia

虽然学习的某些方面已经被很好地理解了，但对于不同物种之间学习差异的基因，以及动物如何在学习后忘记一些东西，人们知之甚少。该项目将调查“遗忘的遗传学”，首先确定哪些基因导致了纳索尼亚（一种适合进行高效遗传研究的小昆虫）的遗忘差异，然后确定这些基因是如何起作用的。这项工作有可能揭示与记忆有关的新基因和机制。像昆虫和人类这样不同的物种都有一些相同的记忆获得和丧失的基本机制，所以这些机制可能广泛适用。“遗忘”基因的发现可能会激发科学家和非科学家的想象力，因此将对科学教育做出广泛贡献。教育推广建立在与詹姆斯敦社区学院持续合作的基础上。努力的目标是在高中和社区大学引入使用Nasonia的调查性学习教学。昆虫属是一种易于处理的实验室生物，具有新兴的研究工具包。这些昆虫很快就学会了将新奇的气味与寄主的奖励联系起来。然而，宿主奖励后的记忆保留在近亲物种之间有很大差异。在一项令人兴奋的新发现中，含有减少记忆保留基因的遗传区域已经成功地从低记忆保留物种回交到高记忆保留物种。本项目的目标是通过重组克隆记忆保留基因，确定它们的编码区和顺式调控区是如何不同的，确定它们的表达地点和时间，以及它们是否在学习经历后调节其他记忆基因的表达，利用RNA干扰敲低研究它们对记忆保留的影响，并确定记忆保留效应是否推广到其他学习模式（如视觉刺激、厌恶刺激）。考虑到纳索尼亚可利用的遗传工具，以及在克隆导致物种差异的基因方面的既定记录，该项目成功的可能性很大。数据将通过国家生物信息中心（NCBI）数据库、膜翅目昆虫数据库和通过在开放获取期刊上发表来提供。

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.