Cell Type-Specific Transcriptome Analysis in the Drosophila Mushroom Body Reveals Memory-Related Changes in Gene Expression

By A. Crocker, Xiao-Juan Guan, Coleen T. Murphy, Mala Murthy. 2016

82 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Summary Learning and memory formation in Drosophila rely on a network of neurons in the mushroom bodies (MB). While numerous studies have delineated roles for individual cell types within this network in aspects of learning or memory, whether or not these cells can also be distinguished by the genes they express remains unresolved. In addition, the changes in gene expression that accompany long-term memory formation within the MBs have not yet been studied by neuron type. Here we address both issues by performing RNA sequencing on single cell types (harvested via patch pipets) within the MB. We discover that the expression of genes that encode cell surface receptors is sufficient to identify cell types, and that a subset of these genes, required for sensory transduction in peripheral sensory neurons, are not only expressed within individual neurons of the MB in the central brain, but are also critical for memory formation.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Ecology, Immunology

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Citations in the corpus

Dopaminergic neurons write and update memories with cell-type-specific rules (2016, positive): “For example, KCs express four distinct dopamine receptors (Crocker et al., 2016), which might be deployed differently in each compartment.”
A connectome of a learning and memory center in the adult Drosophila brain (2017, unknown): “Indeed previous work has shown that MBONs express dopamine receptors, but at lower levels than KCs (Crocker et al., 2016).”
The Drosophila Mushroom Body: From Architecture to Algorithm in a Learning Circuit. (2020, unknown): “Dopamine receptor expression is heterogeneous across both KCs and MBONs (Crocker et al. 2016, Croset et al. 2018), so the differences could lie in the signaling cascades that drive plasticity or in the mechanics of adjusting synaptic vesicle release.”
Origins of Cell-Type-Specific Olfactory Processing in the Drosophila Mushroom Body Circuit. (2017, unknown): “The heterogeneity in intrinsic excitability may reflect differential possession of voltage-sensitive conductances as recent transcriptome analyses revealed that the gene expression profile is different between KC types (Crocker et al., 2016; Perrat et al., 2013).”