摘要
Honey bees are an established animal model for studying learning and memory related behaviors. In recent years, honey bees have become more common as a model for investigations of molecular biology, including gene expression. Honey bees have been used to extrapolate genetic functions found in other invertebrates, such as <i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Drosophila</span></i><span> <i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">melanogaster</span></i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">.</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> The honey bee model has also provided a means for isolating novel genes, including non-coding microRNA fragments. Integrating the study of learning and memory with molecular genetics, the present work examines the effect of learning acquisition and memory consolidation </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">in free-choice paradigms on the expression of a suite of genes of interest. Results suggest </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">that short-term learning acquisition causes differential expression of microRNA fragments, </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">while memory consolidation differentially affects the expression of the serine/threonine </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">protein kinase gene in honey bees. These results corroborate previous findings suggesting the importance of protein kinases in the formation of long term memory, and suggest that microRNA may play a large role in regulation of cytoskeletal scaffolding proteins.</span>
Honey bees are an established animal model for studying learning and memory related behaviors. In recent years, honey bees have become more common as a model for investigations of molecular biology, including gene expression. Honey bees have been used to extrapolate genetic functions found in other invertebrates, such as <i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Drosophila</span></i><span> <i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">melanogaster</span></i><span style="font-family:Verdana;">.</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> The honey bee model has also provided a means for isolating novel genes, including non-coding microRNA fragments. Integrating the study of learning and memory with molecular genetics, the present work examines the effect of learning acquisition and memory consolidation </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">in free-choice paradigms on the expression of a suite of genes of interest. Results suggest </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">that short-term learning acquisition causes differential expression of microRNA fragments, </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">while memory consolidation differentially affects the expression of the serine/threonine </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">protein kinase gene in honey bees. These results corroborate previous findings suggesting the importance of protein kinases in the formation of long term memory, and suggest that microRNA may play a large role in regulation of cytoskeletal scaffolding proteins.</span>
作者
Timothy E. Black
Medhat Radi
Amanda Somers
Charles I. Abramson
Timothy E. Black;Medhat Radi;Amanda Somers;Charles I. Abramson(Laboratory of Comparative Psychology and Behavioral Biology, Psychology Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA;Pest Physiology Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, ARC, Giza, Egypt)
