School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, UK.
College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 11;8(1):534. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18836-3.
Many genes have been implicated in mechanisms of long-term memory formation, but there is still much to be learnt about how the genome dynamically responds, transcriptionally, during memory formation. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine how transcriptome profiles change during visual memory formation in the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Expression of fifty-five genes changed immediately after bees were trained to associate reward with a single coloured chip, and the upregulated genes were predominantly genes known to be involved in signal transduction. Changes in the expression of eighty-one genes were observed four hours after learning a new colour, and the majority of these were upregulated and related to transcription and translation, which suggests that the building of new proteins may be the predominant activity four hours after training. Several of the genes identified in this study (e.g. Rab10, Shank1 and Arhgap44) are interesting candidates for further investigation of the molecular mechanisms of long-term memory formation. Our data demonstrate the dynamic gene expression changes after associative colour learning and identify genes involved in each transcriptional wave, which will be useful for future studies of gene regulation in learning and long-term memory formation.
许多基因都与长期记忆形成的机制有关，但对于基因组在记忆形成过程中如何进行转录动态响应，我们仍有很多需要了解的地方。在这项研究中，我们使用高通量测序来研究在视觉记忆形成过程中，熊蜂（Bombus terrestris）的转录组图谱如何发生变化。在蜜蜂被训练将奖励与单个彩色芯片联系起来后，有 55 个基因的表达立即发生变化，而上调的基因主要是已知参与信号转导的基因。在学习新颜色四个小时后，观察到 81 个基因的表达变化，其中大多数上调与转录和翻译有关，这表明在训练四个小时后，构建新蛋白质可能是主要活动。在这项研究中鉴定的一些基因（例如 Rab10、Shank1 和 Arhgap44）是进一步研究长期记忆形成分子机制的有趣候选基因。我们的数据表明，在联想颜色学习后会发生动态的基因表达变化，并确定了每个转录波中涉及的基因，这将有助于未来对学习和长期记忆形成中的基因调控的研究。
