Time of day influences memory formation and dCREB2 proteins in Drosophila

Robin Fropf; Jiabin Zhang; Anne K Tanenhaus; Whitney J Fropf; Ellen Siefkes; Jerry C P Yin

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2014.00043

Time of day influences memory formation and dCREB2 proteins in Drosophila

Front Syst Neurosci. 2014 Mar 31:8:43. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00043. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Robin Fropf¹, Jiabin Zhang¹, Anne K Tanenhaus¹, Whitney J Fropf², Ellen Siefkes², Jerry C P Yin³

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA ; Neuroscience Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA.
² Departments of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA.
³ Departments of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA ; Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA.

Abstract

Many biological phenomena oscillate under the control of the circadian system, exhibiting peaks and troughs of activity across the day/night cycle. In most animal models, memory formation also exhibits this property, but the underlying neuronal and molecular mechanisms remain unclear. The dCREB2 transcription factor shows circadian regulated oscillations in its activity, and has been shown to be important for both circadian biology and memory formation. We show that the time-of-day (TOD) of behavioral training affects Drosophila memory formation. dCREB2 exhibits complex changes in protein levels across the daytime and nighttime, and these changes in protein abundance are likely to contribute to oscillations in dCREB2 activity and TOD effects on memory formation.

Keywords: dCREB2; genetic; memory formation; sleep; time-of-day; transcription.

Abstract

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