Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Matias Aleman | email: matialeman@hotmail.com
Matias Aleman 1°, Fernando Locatelli 2°, Nicolás Pírez 2°
1° Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
2° Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; UBA-CONICET, Argentina
Insects rely on olfaction to find food and mate. The olfactory cues that drive different behaviors are expected to have been determined by evolution and thus their neurobiological mechanisms are assumed to depend on hardwired circuits. However, it is well established that learning and memory have a large impact in tuning olfactory guided behaviors. The main goal of this project is to unveil the effect that exposure to olfactory stimuli during the larval development has on the olfactory preference in adulthood. We used a method that allows us to measure innate and acquired odor attractiveness. Sixty flies are placed in a chamber, which contains two vials with different odorant solutions. The attractiveness is determined based on the ratio between the numbers of flies trapped in each vial. We used two lines of Drosophila melanogaster, Berlin and Canton S, and tested odorants of different innate valence. Flies were reared in either aversive or appetitive odors and 5 to 7 days after hatching we evaluated their preference for each odorant. Changes in the innate valence of the odors were analyzed by comparing treated flies with the corresponding controls. Our results show that the environment where the animals are reared modulates the behavioral response during adulthood. Future experiments will address the acquisition of valence when rearing in neutral odors. These results provide a novel paradigm to study olfactory memories that resist metamorphosis.