Abstract
Many genes have been implicated in mechanisms of long-term memory formation, but there is still much to be learnt about how the genome dynamically responds, transcriptionally, during memory formation. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine how transcriptome profiles change during visual memory formation in the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Expression of fifty-five genes changed immediately after bees were trained to associate reward with a single coloured chip, and the upregulated genes were predominantly genes known to be involved in signal transduction. Changes in the expression of eighty-one genes were observed four hours after learning a new colour, and the majority of these were upregulated and related to transcription and translation, which suggests that the building of new proteins may be the predominant activity four hours after training. Several of the genes identified in this study (e.g. Rab10, Shank1 and Arhgap44) are interesting candidates for further investigation of the molecular mechanisms of long-term memory formation. Our data demonstrate the dynamic gene expression changes after associative colour learning and identify genes involved in each transcriptional wave, which will be useful for future studies of gene regulation in learning and long-term memory formation.
Highlights
Learning and memory enable animals to modify their behaviour in response to environmental changes[1]
Our results showed that a group of signalling-related genes (including ras-related protein Rab-10 (Rab10); protein phosphatase PP2A 55 kDa regulatory subunit; SH3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domains protein 1 (Shank1); dual specificity protein phosphatase 10 (Dusp10)) responded quickly to new colour learning and their expression dropped 4 hours later
We examined dynamic gene expression changes after associative colour learning
Summary
Learning and memory enable animals to modify their behaviour in response to environmental changes[1]. High-throughput sequencing technology has made it possible to examine the genome-wide transcriptional response to specific behaviours, resulting in the identification of many known or novel transcripts involved in certain behaviours at high resolution and large scale. Since some transcriptional changes responsible for long-term memory formation are initiated during or shortly after learning[6], some genes involved in the bees’ learning and memory formation processes might have been missed in these earlier works. The aim of our study was to determine the transcriptional changes immediately or shortly following training, and identify the genes involved in the process of bees’ visual (colour) long-term memory formation comprehensively by high-throughput sequencing. Differences in gene expression patterns were expected at these two time points, i.e. we hypothesized that different sets of genes may regulate memory formation at different times shortly after learning
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