Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Sarah Certel
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Neuroscience
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Both animals and humans must constantly make decision in dynamic environments. Situational assessment and appropriate response selection are crucial processes that determine the ability of an organism to survive and thrive, or fail and die. Understanding how the signaling by neurons and circuits ultimately lead to behavioral decisions is a critical question that may lead to the identification of mechanisms that address out-of-context behaviors. To understand how neurons send important information that leads to a behavioral decision, I am using the powerful genetic model, Drosophila melanogaster, and the choice to engage in aggressive behavior between males. My focus is on the Mushroom Body Output 11 neurons (MBON-11) which are a pair of GABAergic inhibitory neurons that play a pivotal role in the decision to search for food. As the decision to fight depends in part on whether an organism has the energy to fight, we are testing that hypothesis that the MBON-11 neuron functions as a hub neuron directing feeding, aggression, and reproductive behaviors. To perform our experiments, we utilize the Gal4/UAS gene driving system to eliminate the ability of MBON-11 to signal by GABA. This is accomplished through the knockdown of the Vesicular-GABA-Transporter (VGAT) which loads GABA into synaptic vesicles. We used high throughput chambers containing two males and a central food portion to quantify and analyze latency and frequency of reproductive and lunging behaviors. Preliminary results indicate that reducing MBON-11 GABA inhibitory signaling, results in significantly higher levels of male-male courting behavior. Current experimental data suggests that GABA signaling from MBON11 is required to constrain out-of-context courting as well as onset of courting and lunging behaviors. Together these results address the role of MBON11 as a hub neuron directing context appropriate behavioral expression. These results contribute to our understanding of behavioral decision-making in wildtype and ultimately disease conditions.
Category
Life Sciences
Inhibitory Signaling From a Critical Hub Neuron Drives Behavior Selection and Frequency
UC South Ballroom
Both animals and humans must constantly make decision in dynamic environments. Situational assessment and appropriate response selection are crucial processes that determine the ability of an organism to survive and thrive, or fail and die. Understanding how the signaling by neurons and circuits ultimately lead to behavioral decisions is a critical question that may lead to the identification of mechanisms that address out-of-context behaviors. To understand how neurons send important information that leads to a behavioral decision, I am using the powerful genetic model, Drosophila melanogaster, and the choice to engage in aggressive behavior between males. My focus is on the Mushroom Body Output 11 neurons (MBON-11) which are a pair of GABAergic inhibitory neurons that play a pivotal role in the decision to search for food. As the decision to fight depends in part on whether an organism has the energy to fight, we are testing that hypothesis that the MBON-11 neuron functions as a hub neuron directing feeding, aggression, and reproductive behaviors. To perform our experiments, we utilize the Gal4/UAS gene driving system to eliminate the ability of MBON-11 to signal by GABA. This is accomplished through the knockdown of the Vesicular-GABA-Transporter (VGAT) which loads GABA into synaptic vesicles. We used high throughput chambers containing two males and a central food portion to quantify and analyze latency and frequency of reproductive and lunging behaviors. Preliminary results indicate that reducing MBON-11 GABA inhibitory signaling, results in significantly higher levels of male-male courting behavior. Current experimental data suggests that GABA signaling from MBON11 is required to constrain out-of-context courting as well as onset of courting and lunging behaviors. Together these results address the role of MBON11 as a hub neuron directing context appropriate behavioral expression. These results contribute to our understanding of behavioral decision-making in wildtype and ultimately disease conditions.