June 14, 2024
Drosophila is a leading model organism for dissecting the genetic causes of human disorders. A new review by lead author Aaron Stahl discusses how two classes of disorders - neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative disorders - are studied through their effects on a major brain region involved in learning and memory.
Neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders can affect learning and memory, and brain regions that mediate memory formation are impacted. The mushroom body (MB) is a prominent brain region that is involved with learning and memory in model organisms such as Drosophila. The MB highly organized anatomically and involved in behaviors ranging from learning and memory to sleep and motor function. Given its anatomical organization and role in important behaviors, the MB has been studied in multiple contexts, ranging from development to adult physiology/function to its role in disease. In addition, Drosophila is a leading animal model for genetic contributions to
How are genetic disorders modeled in the Drosophila mushroom body?
This year, André Fiala and Karla Kaun organized a special issue of Learning & Memory on the mushroom body. This commemorates the 25th anniversary of the original special issue on the mushroom body organized by Martin Heisenberg, and follows the 2023 Mushroom Body Meeting held in Göttingen.
For our contribution to this special issue, Aaron Stahl wrote a review focusing on how genetic disorders affect MB structure and function, ultimately impacting behavior. He broke this big-picture question down into several parts, separately covering effects of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder models. Within these categories, he went through the progress on dissecting mechanisms of diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), and fragile X syndrome. These areas were quite expansive to cover in a review - even one narrowing the focus to MB phenotypes - and Aaron did a great job integrating and summarizing a wide swath of literature.
For more information, see the review at Learning & Memory
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