The role of the mushroom bodies and of the central complex of Drosophila melanogaster brain in the organization of courtship behavior and communicative sound production

LIM-kinase 1 effects on memory abilities and male courtship song in Drosophila depend on the neuronal type

The signal pathway of actin remodeling, including LIM-kinase 1 (LIMK1) and its substrate cofilin, regulates multiple processes in neurons of vertebrates and invertebrates. Drosophila melanogaster is widely used as a model object for studying mechanisms of memory formation, storage, retrieval and forgetting. Previously, active forgetting in Drosophila was investigated in the standard Pavlovian olfactory conditioning paradigm. The role of specific dopaminergic neurons (DAN) and components of the actin remodeling pathway in different forms of forgetting was shown. In our research, we investigated the role of LIMK1 in Drosophila memory and forgetting in the conditioned courtship suppression paradigm (CCSP). In the Drosophila brain, LIMK1 and p-cofilin levels appeared to be low in specific neuropil structures, including the mushroom body (MB) lobes and the central complex. At the same time, LIMK1 was observed in cell bodies, such as DAN clusters regulating memory formation in CCSP. We applied GAL4 × UAS binary system to induce limk1 RNA interference in different types of neurons. The hybrid strain with limk1 interference in MB lobes and glia showed an increase in 3-h short-term memory (STM), without significant effects on long-term memory. limk1 interference in cholinergic neurons (CHN) impaired STM, while its interference in DAN and serotoninergic neurons (SRN) also dramatically impaired the flies' learning ability. By contrast, limk1 interference in fruitless neurons (FRN) resulted in increased 15-60 min STM, indicating a possible LIMK1 role in active forgetting. Males with limk1 interference in CHN and FRN also showed the opposite trends of courtship song parameters changes. Thus, LIMK1 effects on the Drosophila male memory and courtship song appeared to depend on the neuronal type or brain structure.

Processing of species-specific auditory patterns in the cricket brain by ascending, local, and descending neurons during standing and walking

The recognition of the male calling song is essential for phonotaxis in female crickets. We investigated the responses toward different models of song patterns by ascending, local, and descending neurons in the brain of standing and walking crickets. We describe results for two ascending, three local, and two descending interneurons. Characteristic dendritic and axonal arborizations of the local and descending neurons indicate a flow of auditory information from the ascending interneurons toward the lateral accessory lobes and point toward the relevance of this brain region for cricket phonotaxis. Two aspects of auditory processing were studied: the tuning of interneuron activity to pulse repetition rate and the precision of pattern copying. Whereas ascending neurons exhibited weak, low-pass properties, local neurons showed both low- and band-pass properties, and descending neurons represented clear band-pass filters. Accurate copying of single pulses was found at all three levels of the auditory pathway. Animals were walking on a trackball, which allowed an assessment of the effect that walking has on auditory processing. During walking, all neurons were additionally activated, and in most neurons, the spike rate was correlated to walking velocity. The number of spikes elicited by a chirp increased with walking only in ascending neurons, whereas the peak instantaneous spike rate of the auditory responses increased on all levels of the processing pathway. Extra spiking activity resulted in a somewhat degraded copying of the pulse pattern in most neurons.