Functional feedback from mushroom bodies to antennal lobes in the Drosophila olfactory pathway

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jun 1;107(22):10262-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914912107. Epub 2010 May 17.

Abstract

Feedback plays important roles in sensory processing. Mushroom bodies are believed to be involved in olfactory learning/memory and multisensory integration in insects. Previous cobalt-labeling studies have suggested the existence of feedback from the mushroom bodies to the antennal lobes in the honey bee. In this study, the existence of functional feedback from Drosophila mushroom bodies to the antennal lobes was investigated through ectopic expression of the ATP receptor P2X(2) in the Kenyon cells of mushroom bodies. Activation of Kenyon cells induced depolarization in projection neurons and local interneurons in the antennal lobes in a nicotinic receptor-dependent manner. Activation of Kenyon cell axons in the betagamma-lobes in the mushroom body induced more potent responses in the antennal lobe neurons than activation of Kenyon cell somata. Our results indicate that functional feedback from Kenyon cells to projection neurons and local interneurons is present in Drosophila and is likely mediated by the betagamma-lobes. The presence of this functional feedback from the mushroom bodies to the antennal lobes suggests top-down modulation of olfactory information processing in Drosophila.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylcholine / physiology
  • Adenosine Triphosphate / pharmacology
  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Drosophila / drug effects
  • Drosophila / genetics
  • Drosophila / physiology*
  • Electrophysiological Phenomena
  • Feedback, Sensory
  • Interneurons / physiology
  • Mushroom Bodies / drug effects
  • Mushroom Bodies / physiology*
  • Olfactory Pathways / drug effects
  • Olfactory Pathways / physiology*
  • Olfactory Receptor Neurons / physiology
  • Patch-Clamp Techniques
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2 / genetics
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2 / metabolism
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2X2
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Sensory Receptor Cells / physiology
  • Synaptic Transmission

Substances

  • Receptors, Purinergic P2
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2X2
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Adenosine Triphosphate
  • Acetylcholine