CSHL scientists identify a mechanism that helps fruit flies lock-in memories

Testing the Result in Living Flies

What about the fly? Dr. Dubnau’s lab performed the final step. They genetically engineered flies that made especially large amounts of Pum protein in a brain region called the mushroom body where memory storage occurs. They then confirmed that, in such flies, the protein product of the dlg1 gene was dramatically reduced in this brain region. This observation supports the notion that Pumilio helps build memories by selectively altering individual synapses.

The current work is particularly satisfying, Dr. Dubnau noted, because the original hypothesis about Pumilio was extended by computations to make further predictions, which were then brought full circle and tested in vitro, in the lab and in vivo, in living flies. "It's the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that Cold Spring Harbor is very good at," he observed.

“Identification of Synaptic Targets of Drosophila Pumilio” appears in PLoS Computational Biology on February 29, 2008. The complete citation is as follows: Gengxin Chen, Wanhe Li, Qing-Shuo Zhang, Michael Regulski, Nishi Sinha, Jody Barditch, Tim Tully, Adrian R. Krainer, Michael Q. Zhang, and Josh Dubnau. The paper is available online at: http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000026

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit research and education institution dedicated to exploring molecular biology and genetics in order to advance the understanding and ability to diagnose and treat cancers, neurological diseases, and other causes of human suffering.

For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.