Short Neuropeptide F Acts as a Functional Neuromodulator for Olfactory Memory in Kenyon Cells of Drosophila Mushroom Bodies

By Stephan Knapek, Lily Kahsai, Å. Winther, Hiromu Tanimoto, D. Nässel. 2013

57 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In insects, many complex behaviors, including olfactory memory, are controlled by a paired brain structure, the so-called mushroom bodies (MB). In Drosophila, the development, neuroanatomy, and function of intrinsic neurons of the MB, the Kenyon cells, have been well characterized. Until now, several potential neurotransmitters or neuromodulators of Kenyon cells have been anatomically identified. However, whether these neuroactive substances of the Kenyon cells are functional has not been clarified yet. Here we show that a neuropeptide precursor gene encoding four types of short neuropeptide F (sNPF) is required in the Kenyon cells for appetitive olfactory memory. We found that activation of Kenyon cells by expressing a thermosensitive cation channel (dTrpA1) leads to a decrease in sNPF immunoreactivity in the MB lobes. Targeted expression of RNA interference against the sNPF precursor in Kenyon cells results in a highly significant knockdown of sNPF levels. This knockdown of sNPF in the Kenyon cells impairs sugar-rewarded olfactory memory. This impairment is not due to a defect in the reflexive sugar preference or odor response. Consistently, knockdown of sNPF receptors outside the MB causes deficits in appetitive memory. Altogether, these results suggest that sNPF is a functional neuromodulator released by Kenyon cells.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Genetics, Insect Science

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Citations in the corpus

Mushroom body output neurons encode valence and guide memory-based action selection in Drosophila (2014, background): “For example, dopamine may modulate terminals of KCs to potentiate release of an inhibitory cotransmitter such as short neuropeptide F, which has been demonstrated to be functional in KCs (Knapek et al., 2013) and hyperpolarizes cells expressing the sNPF receptor (Shang et al., 2013).”
Cell Type-Specific Transcriptome Analysis in the Drosophila Mushroom Body Reveals Memory-Related Changes in Gene Expression (2016, unknown): “13 Ube3a CG6190 Ube3a Jiang et al. (2010) PlosOne 5(8) Chakraborty et al. (2015) Biochem Biophys Res Commun 462(1) Actn CG4376 Actn1, Actn2, Actn3, Actn4 Fifkova and Delay (1982) J Cell Biol 95(1) sNPF CG13968 Knapek et al. (2013) J Neurosci 33(12) Cell Rep. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 ”