Dunce and amnesiac gene effect on signal learning in fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster: experiments with odors

摘要

The behaviour of normal D. melanogaster and of X-linked olfactory conditioning mutants, dunce and amnesiac, was analysed using an olfactory search task. Normal (C-S) flies quickly learnt and remembered which of 2 odours signals the presence of foodand they were capable of retaining this information for at least 8 h. Both dunce and amnesiac mutants were able to learn, whereas mutant dunce did not reach the learning level of wild type C-S flies. Also dunce flies require >1 learning trial for a sizeable learning effect. Reversal learning experiments showed that normal C-S flies and amnesiac are able to switch to a new food signal in response to a new experience, while the dunce mutation inhibits the acquisition of new information in reversal learning experiments.