A simplified courtship conditioning protocol to test learning and memory in Drosophila.

In Drosophila, a male that has previously been sexually rejected reduces its courtship behavior when confronted again with an unreceptive female. This reduced courting time reflects a memory formation process. Here, we describe a simplified protocol to perform the courtship conditioning assay for assessing the reduced courting time, using regular lab equipment and handmade tools. Every step of the procedure, from raising flies and training to testing and quantification of this memory-related behavior, can be implemented in any practice laboratory.

Alignment between glioblastoma internal clock and environmental cues ameliorates survival in Drosophila.

Virtually every single living organism on Earth shows a circadian (i.e. "approximately a day") internal rhythm that is coordinated with planet rotation (i.e. 24 hours). External cues synchronize the central clock of the organism. Consequences of biological rhythm disruptions have been extensively studied on cancer. Still, mechanisms underlying these alterations, and how they favor tumor development remain largely unknown. Here, we show that glioblastoma-induced neurodegeneration also causes circadian alterations in Drosophila. Preventing neurodegeneration in all neurons by genetic means reestablishes normal biological rhythms. Interestingly, in early stages of tumor development, the central pacemaker lengthens its period, whereas in later stages this is severely disrupted. The re-adjustment of the external light:dark period to longer glioblastoma-induced internal rhythms delays glioblastoma progression and ameliorates associated deleterious effects, even after the tumor onset.

The elusive transcriptional memory trace.

Memory is the brain faculty to store and remember information. It is a sequential process in which four different phases can be distinguished: encoding or learning, consolidation, storage and reactivation. Since the discovery of the first Drosophila gene essential for memory formation in 1976, our knowledge of its mechanisms has progressed greatly. The current view considers the existence of engrams, ensembles of neuronal populations whose activity is temporally coordinated and represents the minimal correlate of experience in brain circuits. In order to form and maintain the engram, protein synthesis and, probably, specific transcriptional program(s) is required. The immediate early gene response during learning process has been extensively studied. However, a detailed description of the transcriptional response for later memory phases was technically challenging. Recent advances in transcriptomics have allowed us to tackle this biological problem. This review summarizes recent findings in this field, and discusses whether or not it is possible to identify a transcriptional trace for memory.

Timing the Juvenile-Adult Neurohormonal Transition: Functions and Evolution.

Puberty and metamorphosis are two major developmental transitions linked to the reproductive maturation. In mammals and vertebrates, the central brain acts as a gatekeeper, timing the developmental transition through the activation of a neuroendocrine circuitry. In addition to reproduction, these neuroendocrine axes and the sustaining genetic network play additional roles in metabolism, sleep and behavior. Although neurohormonal axes regulating juvenile-adult transition have been classically considered the result of convergent evolution (i.e., analogous) between mammals and insects, recent findings challenge this idea, suggesting that at least some neuroendocrine circuits might be present in the common bilaterian ancestor Urbilateria. The initial signaling pathways that trigger the transition in different species appear to be of a single evolutionary origin and, consequently, many of the resulting functions are conserved with a few other molecular players being co-opted during evolution.

AstA Signaling Functions as an Evolutionary Conserved Mechanism Timing Juvenile to Adult Transition.

The onset of sexual maturation is the result of a hormonal cascade peaking with the production of steroid hormones. In animals undergoing a program of determinate growth, sexual maturation also coincides with the attainment of adult size. The exact signals that time the onset of maturation and the mechanisms coupling growth and maturation remain elusive. Here, we show that the Drosophila neuropeptide AstA and its receptor AstAR1 act as a brain trigger for maturation and juvenile growth. We first identified AstAR1 in an RNAi-based genetic screen as a key regulator of sexual maturation. Its specific knockdown in prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH)-producing neurons delays the onset of maturation by impairing PTTH secretion. In addition to its role in PTTH neurons, AstAR1 is required in the brain insulin-producing cells (IPCs) to promote insulin secretion and systemic growth. AstAR1 function is mediated by the AstA neuropeptide that is expressed in two bilateral neurons contacting the PTTH neurons and the IPCs. Silencing brain AstA expression delays the onset of maturation, therefore extending the growth period. However, no pupal overgrowth is observed, indicating that, in these conditions, the growth-promoting function of AstAR1 is also impaired. These data suggest that AstA/AstAR1 acts to coordinate juvenile growth with maturation. Interesting, AstA/AstAR1 is homologous to KISS/GPR54, a ligand-receptor signal required for human puberty, suggesting that an evolutionary conserved neural circuitry controls the onset of maturation.

Prothoracicotropic hormone modulates environmental adaptive plasticity through the control of developmental timing.

Adult size and fitness are controlled by a combination of genetics and environmental cues. In Drosophila, growth is confined to the larval phase and final body size is impacted by the duration of this phase, which is under neuroendocrine control. The neuropeptide prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) has been proposed to play a central role in controlling the length of the larval phase through regulation of ecdysone production, a steroid hormone that initiates larval molting and metamorphosis. Here, we test this by examining the consequences of null mutations in the Ptth gene for Drosophila development. Loss of Ptth causes several developmental defects, including a delay in developmental timing, increase in critical weight, loss of coordination between body and imaginal disc growth, and reduced adult survival in suboptimal environmental conditions such as nutritional deprivation or high population density. These defects are caused by a decrease in ecdysone production associated with altered transcription of ecdysone biosynthetic genes. Therefore, the PTTH signal contributes to coordination between environmental cues and the developmental program to ensure individual fitness and survival.

Neurogenetics of Drosophila circadian clock: expect the unexpected.

Daily biological rhythms (i.e. circadian) are a fundamental part of animal behavior. Numerous reports have shown disruptions of the biological clock in neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. In the latter case, only recently we have gained insight into the molecular mechanisms. After 45 years of intense study of the circadian rhtythms, we find surprising similarities among species on the molecular clock that governs biological rhythms. Indeed, Drosophila is one of the most widely used models in the study of chronobiology. Recent studies in the fruit fly have revealed unpredicted roles for the clock machinery in different aspects of behavior and physiology. Not only the central pacemaker cells do have non-classical circadian functions but also circadian genes work in other cells and tissues different from central clock neurons. In this review, we summarize these new evidences. We also recapitulate the most basic features of Drosophila circadian clock, including recent data about the inputs and outputs that connect the central pacemaker with other regions of the brain. Finally, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of using natural versus laboratory conditions.

Neuroendocrine control of Drosophila larval light preference.

Animal development is coupled with innate behaviors that maximize chances of survival. Here, we show that the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), a neuropeptide that controls the developmental transition from juvenile stage to sexual maturation, also regulates light avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster larvae. PTTH, through its receptor Torso, acts on two light sensors--the Bolwig's organ and the peripheral class IV dendritic arborization neurons--to regulate light avoidance. We found that PTTH concomitantly promotes steroidogenesis and light avoidance at the end of larval stage, driving animals toward a darker environment to initiate the immobile maturation phase. Thus, PTTH controls the decisions of when and where animals undergo metamorphosis, optimizing conditions for adult development.

Flower forms an extracellular code that reveals the fitness of a cell to its neighbors in Drosophila.

Cell competition promotes the elimination of weaker cells from a growing population. Here we investigate how cells of Drosophila wing imaginal discs distinguish "winners" from "losers" during cell competition. Using genomic and functional assays, we have identified several factors implicated in the process, including Flower (Fwe), a cell membrane protein conserved in multicellular animals. Our results suggest that Fwe is a component of the cell competition response that is required and sufficient to label cells as "winners" or "losers." In Drosophila, the fwe locus produces three isoforms, fwe(ubi), fwe(Lose-A), and fwe(Lose-B). Basal levels of fwe(ubi) are constantly produced. During competition, the fwe(Lose) isoforms are upregulated in prospective loser cells. Cell-cell comparison of relative fwe(Lose) and fwe(ubi) levels ultimately determines which cell undergoes apoptosis. This "extracellular code" may constitute an ancient mechanism to terminate competitive conflicts among cells.

Cell competition, growth and size control in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc.

We report here experiments aimed at understanding the connections between cell competition and growth in the Drosophila wing disc. The principal assay has been to generate discs containing marked cells that proliferate at different rates and to study their interactions and their contribution to the final structure. It is known that single clones of fast-dividing cells within a compartment may occupy the larger part of the compartment without affecting its size. This has suggested the existence of interactions involving cell competition between fast- and slow-dividing cells directed to accommodate the contribution of each cell to the final compartment. Here we show that indeed fast-dividing cells can outcompete slow-dividing ones in their proximity. However, we argue that this elimination is of little consequence because preventing apoptosis, and therefore cell competition, in those compartments does not affect the size of the clones or the size of the compartments. Our experiments indicate that cells within a compartment proliferate autonomously at their own rate. The contribution of each cell to the compartment is exclusively determined by its division rate within the frame of a size control mechanism that stops growth once the compartment has reached the final arresting size. This is supported by a computer simulation of the contribution of individual fast clones growing within a population of slower dividing cells and without interacting with them. The values predicted by the simulation are very close to those obtained experimentally.

Apoptosis in Drosophila: compensatory proliferation and undead cells.

Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is a conserved process in all animals, used to eliminate damaged or unwanted cells after stress events or during normal development to sculpt larval or adult structures. In Drosophila, it is known that stress events such as irradiation or heat shock give rise to high apoptotic levels which remove more than 50% of cells in imaginal discs. However, the surviving cells are able to restore normal size and pattern, indicating that they undergo additional proliferation. This compensatory proliferation is still poorly understood. One widely used method to study the properties of apoptotic cells is to keep them alive by expressing in them the baculoviral protein P35, which blocks the activity of the effector caspases. These "undead" cells acquire special features, such as the emission of the growth signals Dpp and Wg, changes in cellular morphology and induction of proliferation in neighbouring cells. Here, we review the various methods used in Drosophila to block apoptosis and its consequences, and focus on the generation and properties of undead cells in the wing imaginal disc. We describe their effects in epithelial architecture and growth in some detail, and discuss the possible relationship between undead cells and compensatory proliferation.

Dpp of posterior origin patterns the proximal region of the wing.

The decapentaplegic (dpp) gene encodes a long-range morphogen that plays a key role in the patterning of the wing imaginal disc of Drosophila (Nellen, D., Burke, R., Struhl, G. and Basler, K. 1996. Direct and long-range action of a DPP morphogen gradient. Cell 85, 357-368.). The current view is that dpp is transcriptionally active in a narrow band of anterior compartment cells close to the anterio-posterior (A/P) compartment border. Once the Dpp protein is synthesised, it travels across the A/P border and diffuses forming concentration gradients in the two compartments (reviewed in Lawrence, P.A., Struhl, G. 1996. Morphogens, compartments, and pattern: lessons from drosophila? Cell 85, 951-961.). We have found a new site of dpp expression in the posterior wing compartment which appears during the third larval period. This source of Dpp signal generates a local gradient of Dpp pathway activity, which is independent of that originating in the anterior compartment. We show that this posterior tier of Dpp activity is functionally required for normal wing development: the elimination of dpp expression in the posterior compartment results in defective adult wings in which pattern elements such as the alula and much of the axillary cord are not formed. Moreover, these structures develop normally in the absence of anterior dpp expression. Thus the normal wing pattern requires distinct Dpp organizer activities in the anterior and posterior compartments. We further show that, unlike the anterior dpp expression domain, the posterior one is not dependent on Hedgehog activity but is dependant on the activity of the IRO complex gene mirror. Since there is a similar expression in the haltere disc, we suggest that this late appearing posterior Dpp activity may be an attribute of dorsal thoracic discs.

A Wingless and Notch double-repression mechanism regulates G1-S transition in the Drosophila wing.

The control of tissue growth and patterning is orchestrated in various multicellular tissues by the coordinated activity of the signalling molecules Wnt/Wingless (Wg) and Notch, and mutations in these pathways can cause cancer. The role of these molecules in the control of cell proliferation and the crosstalk between their corresponding pathways remain poorly understood. Crosstalk between Notch and Wg has been proposed to organize pattern and growth in the Drosophila wing primordium. Here we report that Wg and Notch act in a surprisingly linear pathway to control G1-S progression. We present evidence that these molecules exert their function by regulating the expression of the dmyc proto-oncogene and the bantam micro-RNA, which positively modulated the activity of the E2F transcription factor. Our results demonstrate that Notch acts in this cellular context as a repressor of cell-cycle progression and Wg has a permissive role in alleviating Notch-mediated repression of G1-S progression in wing cells.

Cell competition: the embrace of death.

Cell competition compares cells within a growing population and eliminates the weaker ones by apoptosis. In a recent issue of Cell, Li and Baker (2007) show in the Drosophila wing disc that cells fated to die induce in neighboring cells the activity of engulfment genes, whose function is essential to complete the apoptotic program.

Compartments and the control of growth in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc.

The mechanisms that control organ growth are among the least known in development. This is particularly the case for the process in which growth is arrested once final size is reached. We have studied this problem in the wing disc of Drosophila, the developmental and growth parameters of which are well known. We have devised a method to generate entire fast-growing Minute(+) (M(+)) discs or compartments in slow developing Minute/+ (M/+) larvae. Under these conditions, a M(+) wing disc gains at least 20 hours of additional development time. Yet it grows to the same size of Minute/+ discs developing in M/+ larvae. We have also generated wing discs in which all the cells in either the anterior (A) or the posterior (P) compartment are transformed from M/+ to M(+). We find that the difference in the cell division rate of their cells is reflected in autonomous differences in the developmental progression of these compartments: each grows at its own rate and manifests autonomous regulation in the expression of the developmental genes wingless and vestigial. In spite of these differences, ;mosaic' discs comprising fast and slow compartments differentiate into adult wings of the correct size and shape. Our results demonstrate that imaginal discs possess an autonomous mechanism with which to arrest growth in anterior and posterior compartments, which behave as independent developmental units. We propose that this mechanism does not act by preventing cell divisions, but by lengthening the division cycle.

Dpp signaling and the induction of neoplastic tumors by caspase-inhibited apoptotic cells in Drosophila.

In Drosophila, stresses such as x-irradiation or severe heat shock can cause most epidermal cells to die by apoptosis. Yet, the remaining cells recover from such assaults and form normal adult structures, indicating that they undergo extra growth to replace the lost cells. Recent studies of cells in which the cell death pathway is blocked by expression of the caspase inhibitor P35 have raised the possibility that dying cells normally regulate this compensatory growth by serving as transient sources of mitogenic signals. Caspase-inhibited cells that initiate apoptosis do not die. Instead, they persist in an "undead" state in which they ectopically express the signaling genes decapentaplegic (dpp) and wingless (wg) and induce abnormal growth and proliferation of surrounding tissue. Here, using mutations to abolish Dpp and/or Wg signaling by such undead cells, we show that Dpp and Wg constitute opposing stimulatory and inhibitory signals that regulate this excess growth and proliferation. Strikingly, we also found that, when Wg signaling is blocked, unfettered Dpp signaling by undead cells transforms their neighbors into neoplastic tumors, provided that caspase activity is also blocked in the responding cells. This phenomenon may provide a paradigm for the formation of neoplastic tumors in mammalian tissues that are defective in executing the cell death pathway. Specifically, we suggest that stress events (exposure to chemical mutagens, viral infection, or irradiation) that initiate apoptosis in such tissues generate undead cells, and that imbalances in growth regulatory signals sent by these cells can induce the oncogenic transformation of neighboring cells.

Caspase inhibition during apoptosis causes abnormal signalling and developmental aberrations in Drosophila.

Programmed cell death or apoptosis plays an important role in the development of multicellular organisms and can also be induced by various stress events. In the Drosophila wing imaginal disc there is little apoptosis in normal development but X-rays can induce high apoptotic levels, which eliminate a large fraction of the disc cells. Nevertheless, irradiated discs form adult patterns of normal size, indicating the existence of compensatory mechanisms. We have characterised the apoptotic response of the wing disc to X-rays and heat shock and also the developmental consequences of compromising apoptosis. We have used the caspase inhibitor P35 to prevent the death of apoptotic cells and found that it causes increased non-autonomous cell proliferation, invasion of compartments and persistent misexpression of the wingless (wg) and decapentaplegic (dpp) signalling genes. We propose that a feature of cells undergoing apoptosis is to activate wg and dpp, probably as part of the mechanism to compensate for cell loss. If apoptotic cells are not eliminated, they continuously emit Wg and Dpp signals, which results in developmental aberrations. We suggest that a similar process of uncoupling apoptosis initiation and cell death may occur during tumour formation in mammalian cells.

The brinker gradient controls wing growth in Drosophila.

The Decapentaplegic (Dpp) morphogen gradient controls growth and patterning in the Drosophila appendages. There is recent evidence indicating that the Dpp gradient is converted into an inverse gradient of activity of the gene brinker (brk), which encodes a transcriptional repressor and is negatively regulated by the Dpp pathway. We have studied how alterations in the Brk gradient affect the growth of the wing disc. We find that there is a negative correlation between brk activity and growth of the disc: high levels of brk prevent or reduce growth, whereas loss of brk activity results in excessive growth. This effect is concentration dependent: different amounts of Brk produce distinct rates of growth. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that although brk is able to induce apoptosis where there is a sharp difference in Brk levels, its role as a growth repressor is not achieved by inducing apoptosis but by reducing cell proliferation. Brk appears to downregulate the activity of genes that control cell proliferation, such as bantam.