Media Releases and Opportunities

Researchers studying the courtship behaviour of a tiny, pesky insect have identified the genes that are needed for the formation of long-term memory and the switches that turn them on -- findings that could significantly improve our understanding of human memory and disease.

The work was published today in Nature Communications.

Scientists from Dalhousie University and the Cajal Institute in Spain used the fruit fly model Drosophila melanogaster to study the genetic nature of memory, since the species has long been used to examine the molecular mechanisms underlying memory after the first "memory genes" were identified in the flies in the '70s.

For long-term memory to be formed in mammals and fruit flies, genes need to get turned on, yet little was known about which genes get activated to promote memory. With this research, the team isolated specific memory neurons from flies and analyzed their gene expression over a time course of long-term memory formation and retrieval.

They did that by using a classic fruit fly memory assay known as conditioned courtship suppression, where male flies must learn that females who had previously mated will not mate with them. The long-term memory gene switches they identified are implicated in human neurological disorders, underscoring the potential of this research to advance the study of human memory and disease.

Dr. Jamie Kramer, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology professor in Dal's Faculty of Medicine, is available to discuss this important finding and how this work marks a significant technical achievement not many groups in the world can do.

                                                                                    -30-

Media contact:

Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca