Adrenergic signaling has important roles in synaptic plasticity and metaplasticity. However, the underlying mechanisms of these functions remain poorly understood. We investigated the role of octopamine, the invertebrate counterpart of adrenaline and noradrenaline, in synaptic and behavioral plasticity in Drosophila. We found that an increase in locomotor speed induced by food deprivation was accompanied by an activity- and octopamine-dependent extension of octopaminergic arbors and that the formation and maintenance of these arbors required electrical activity. Growth of octopaminergic arbors was controlled by a cAMP- and CREB-dependent positive-feedback mechanism that required Octpβ2R octopamine autoreceptors. Notably, this autoregulation was necessary for the locomotor response. In addition, octopamine neurons regulated the expansion of excitatory glutamatergic neuromuscular arbors through Octpβ2Rs on glutamatergic motor neurons. Our results provide a mechanism for global regulation of excitatory synapses, presumably to maintain synaptic and behavioral plasticity in a dynamic range.

Summary

Labile memory is thought to be held in the brain as persistent neural network activity [1–4]. However, it is not known how biologically relevant memory circuits are organized and operate. Labile and persistent appetitive memory in Drosophila requires output after training from the α′β′ subset of mushroom body (MB) neurons and from a pair of modulatory Dorsal Paired Medial (DPM) neurons [5–9]. DPM neurons innervate the entire MB lobe region and appear to be pre- and post-synaptic to the MB [7, 8], consistent with a recurrent network model. Here we identify a role after training for synaptic output from the GABAergic Anterior Paired Lateral (APL) neurons [10, 11]. Blocking synaptic output from APL neurons after training disrupts labile memory but does not affect long-term memory. APL neurons contact DPM neurons most densely in the α′β′ lobes although their processes are intertwined and contact throughout all the lobes. Furthermore, APL contacts MB neurons in the α′ lobe but makes little direct contact with those in the distal α lobe. We propose that APL neurons provide widespread inhibition to stabilize and maintain synaptic specificity of a labile memory trace in a recurrent DPM and MB α′β′ neuron circuit.

Taste is an early stage in food and drink selection for most animals [1, 2]. Detecting sweetness indicates the presence of sugar and possible caloric content. However, sweet taste can be an unreliable predictor of nutrient value because some sugars cannot be metabolized. In addition, discrete sugars are detected by the same sensory neurons in the mammalian [3] and insect gustatory systems [4, 5], making it difficult for animals to readily distinguish the identity of different sugars using taste alone [6–8]. Here we used an appetitive memory assay in Drosophila [9–11] to investigate the contribution of palatability and relative nutritional value of sugars to memory formation. We show that palatability and nutrient value both contribute to reinforcement of appetitive memory. Non-nutritious sugars formed less robust memory that could be augmented by supplementing with a tasteless but nutritious substance. Nutrient information is conveyed to the brain within minutes of training when it can be used to guide expression of a sugar-preference memory. Therefore flies can rapidly learn to discriminate between sugars using a post-ingestive reward evaluation system and they preferentially remember nutritious sugars.

Many molecular signals that represent hunger and satiety in the body have been identified, but relatively little is known about how these factors alter the nervous system to change behavior. Root et al. (2011) report that hunger modulates the sensitivity of specific olfactory sensory neurons in Drosophila and facilitates odor search behavior.

A goal of memory research is to understand how changing the weight of specific synapses in neural circuits in the brain leads to an appropriate learned behavioral response. Finding the relevant synapses should allow investigators to probe the underlying physiological and molecular operations that encode memories and permit their retrieval. In this review, I discuss recent work in Drosophila that implicates subsets of dopaminergic neurons in aversive reinforcement and appetitive motivation. The zonal architecture of these dopaminergic neurons may reveal the functional organization of aversive and appetitive memory in the mushroom bodies. Combinations of fly dopaminergic neurons might code negative and positive value consistent with a motivational systems role proposed in mammals.

Summary

Neural systems controlling the vital functions of sleep and feeding in mammals are tightly inter-connected: sleep deprivation promotes feeding, while starvation suppresses sleep. Here we show that starvation in Drosophila potently suppresses sleep suggesting that these two homeostatically regulated behaviors are also integrated in flies. The sleep suppressing effect of starvation is independent of the mushroom bodies, a previously identified sleep locus in the fly brain, and therefore is regulated by distinct neural circuitry. The circadian clock genes Clock (Clk) and cycle (cyc) are critical for proper sleep suppression during starvation. However, the sleep suppression is independent of light cues and of circadian rhythms because starved period mutants sleep like wild type flies. By selectively targeting subpopulations of Clk-expressing neurons we localize the observed sleep phenotype to the dorsally located circadian neurons. These findings show that Clk and cyc act during starvation to modulate the conflict of whether flies sleep or search for food.

By genetically manipulating both pheromonal profiles and behavioral patterns, we find that Drosophila males showed a complete reversal in their patterns of aggression towards other males and females

Appropriate displays of aggression rely on the ability to recognize potential competitors. As in most species, Drosophila males fight with other males and do not attack females. In insects, sex recognition is strongly dependent on chemosensory communication, mediated by cuticular hydrocarbons acting as pheromones. While the roles of chemical and other sensory cues in stimulating male to female courtship have been well characterized in Drosophila, the signals that elicit aggression remain unclear. Here we show that when female pheromones or behavior are masculinized, males recognize females as competitors and switch from courtship to aggression. To masculinize female pheromones, a transgene carrying dsRNA for the sex determination factor transformer (traIR) was targeted to the pheromone producing cells, the oenocytes. Shortly after copulation males attacked these females, indicating that pheromonal cues can override other sensory cues. Surprisingly, masculinization of female behavior by targeting traIR to the nervous system in an otherwise normal female also was sufficient to trigger male aggression. Simultaneous masculinization of both pheromones and behavior induced a complete switch in the normal male response to a female. Control males now fought rather than copulated with these females. In a reciprocal experiment, feminization of the oenocytes and nervous system in males by expression of transformer (traF) elicited high levels of courtship and little or no aggression from control males. Finally, when confronted with flies devoid of pheromones, control males attacked male but not female opponents, suggesting that aggression is not a default behavior in the absence of pheromonal cues. Thus, our results show that masculinization of either pheromones or behavior in females is sufficient to trigger male-to-female aggression. Moreover, by manipulating both the pheromonal profile and the fighting patterns displayed by the opponent, male behavioral responses towards males and females can be completely reversed. Therefore, both pheromonal and behavioral cues are used by Drosophila males in recognizing a conspecific as a competitor.

Author Summary

As in other species, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster uses chemical signals in the form of pheromones to recognize the species and sex of another individual. Males typically fight with other males and do not attack females. While the roles of pheromonal and other sensory cues in stimulating courtship towards females have been extensively studied, the signals that elicit aggression towards other males remain unclear. In this work, we use genetic tools to show that masculinization of female pheromones is sufficient to trigger aggression from wild type males towards females. Surprisingly, males also attacked females that displayed male patterns of aggression, even if they show normal female pheromonal profiles, indicating that pheromones are not the only cues important for identifying another animal as an opponent. By simultaneously manipulating pheromones and behavioral patterns of opponents, we can completely switch the behavioral response of males towards females and males. These results demonstrate that not only pheromonal but also behavioral cues can serve as triggers of aggression, underlining the importance of behavioral feedback in the manifestation of social behaviors.

Motivational states are important determinants of behavior. In fruit flies appetitive memory expression is constrained by satiety and promoted by hunger. Here we identify a neural mechanism that integrates the motivational state of hunger and memory. We show that stimulation of neurons that express Neuropeptide F (dNPF), an ortholog of mammalian NPY, mimicks food-deprivation and promotes memory performance in satiated flies. Robust appetitive memory performance requires the dNPF receptor in six dopaminergic neurons that innervate a distinct region of the mushroom bodies. Blocking these dopaminergic neurons releases memory performance in satiated flies whereas stimulation suppresses memory performance in hungry flies. Therefore dNPF and dopamine provide a motivational switch in the mushroom body that controls the output of appetitive memory.

The function of sleep is hotly contested. Two recent studies suggest that fly sleep may be required to rescale synapses in the brain.

A unifying feature of mammalian and insect olfactory systems is that olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) expressing the same unique odorant receptor gene converge onto the same glomeruli in the brain (1–7). Most odorants activate a combination of receptors and thus distinct patterns of glomeruli, forming a proposed combinatorial spatial code that could support discrimination between a large number of odorants (8–11). OSNs also exhibit odor-evoked responses with complex temporal dynamics (11), but the contribution of this activity to behavioral odor discrimination has received little attention (12). Here we investigated the importance of spatial encoding in the relatively simple Drosophila antennal lobe. We show that Drosophila can learn to discriminate between two odorants with one functional class of Or83b-expressing OSNs. Furthermore, these flies encode one odorant from a mixture, and cross-adapt to odorants that activate the relevant OSN class, demonstrating that they discriminate odorants using the same OSNs. Lastly, flies with a single class of Or83b-expressing OSNs recognize a specific odorant across a range of concentration indicating that they encode odorant identity. Therefore flies can distinguish odorants without discrete spatial codes in the antennal lobe, implying an important role for odorant-evoked temporal dynamics in behavioral odorant discrimination.

Although many animals use the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and navigation1,2, the precise biophysical mechanisms underlying magnetic sensing have been elusive. One theoretical model proposes that geomagnetic fields are perceived by chemical reactions involving specialized photoreceptors3. But the specific photoreceptor involved in such magnetoreception has not been demonstrated conclusively in any animal. Here we show that the UV-A/blue light photoreceptor CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) is necessary for light-dependent magnetosensitive responses in Drosophila melanogaster. In a binary-choice behavioural assay for magnetosensitivity, wild-type flies exhibit significant naïve and trained responses to a magnetic field under full-spectrum light (~300–700 nm) but do not respond to the field when wavelengths in the CRY-sensitive, UV-A/blue part of the spectrum (<420 nm) are blocked. Remarkably, CRY-deficient cry0 and cryb flies do not show either naïve or trained responses to a magnet field under full-spectrum light. Moreover, CRY-dependent magnetosensitivity does not require a functioning circadian clock. Our work provides the first genetic evidence for a CRY-based magnetosensitive system in any animal.

In Drosophila, formation of aversive olfactory long-term memory (LTM) requires multiple training sessions pairing odor and electric shock punishment with rest intervals. In contrast, here we show that a single 2 min training session pairing odor with a more ethologically relevant sugar reinforcement forms long-term appetitive memory that lasts for days. Appetitive LTM has some mechanistic similarity to aversive LTM in that it can be disrupted by cycloheximide, the dCreb2-b transcriptional repressor, and the crammer and tequila LTM-specific mutations. However, appetitive LTM is completely disrupted by the radish mutation that apparently represents a distinct mechanistic phase of consolidated aversive memory. Furthermore, appetitive LTM requires activity in the dorsal paired medial neuron and mushroom body α′ β′ neuron circuit during the first hour after training and mushroom body αβ neuron output during retrieval, suggesting that appetitive middle-term memory and LTM are mechanistically linked. Last, experiments feeding and/or starving flies after training reveals a critical motivational drive that enables appetitive LTM retrieval.

Drosophila mushroom bodies (MB) are bilaterally symmetric multi-lobed brain structures required for olfactory memory. Previous studies suggested that neurotransmission from MB neurons is only required for memory retrieval. Our unexpected observation that Dorsal Paired Medial (DPM) neurons, which project only to MB neurons, are required during memory storage but not for acquisition or retrieval, led us to revisit the role of MB neurons in memory processing. We show that neurotransmission from the α′β′ subset of MB neurons is required to acquire and stabilize aversive and appetitive odor memory but is dispensable during memory retrieval. In contrast neurotransmission from MB αβ neurons is only required for memory retrieval. These data suggest a dynamic requirement for the different subsets of MB neurons in memory and are consistent with the notion that recurrent activity in a MB α′β′ neuron-DPM neuron loop is required to stabilize memories formed in the MB αβ neurons.