Université de Fribourg

Four individually identified paired dopamine neurons signal reward in larval Drosophila

Rohwedder, Astrid ; Wenz, Nana L. ; Stehle, Bernhard ; Huser, Annina ; Yamagata, Nobuhiro ; Zlatic, Marta ; Truman, James W. ; Tanimoto, Hiromu ; Saumweber, Timo ; Gerber, Bertram ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: Current Biology, 2016, vol. 26, no. 5, p. 661–669

Dopaminergic neurons serve multiple functions, including reinforcement processing during associative learning [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12]. It is thus warranted to understand which dopaminergic neurons mediate which function. We study larval Drosophila, in which only approximately 120 of a total of 10,000 neurons are dopaminergic, as judged by the expression of tyrosine...

Université de Fribourg

Neuropeptide F neurons modulate sugar reward during associative olfactory learning of Drosophila larvae

Rohwedder, Astrid ; Selcho, Mareike ; Chassot, Bérénice ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2015, vol. 523, no. 18, p. 2637–2664

All organisms continuously have to adapt their behavior according to changes in the environment in order to survive. Experience-driven changes in behavior are usually mediated and maintained by modifications in signaling within defined brain circuits. Given the simplicity of the larval brain of Drosophila and its experimental accessibility on the genetic and behavioral level, we analyzed if...

Université de Fribourg

Characterization of the octopaminergic and tyraminergic neurons in the central brain of Drosophila larvae

Selcho, Mareike ; Pauls, Dennis ; Huser, Annina ; Stocker, Reinhard F. ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2014, p. –

Drosophila larvae are able to evaluate sensory information based on prior experience, similar to adult flies, other insect species and vertebrates. Larvae and adult flies can be taught to associate odor stimuli with sugar reward and prior work has implicated both the octopaminergic and dopaminergic modulatory systems in reinforcement signaling. Here we use genetics to analyze the anatomy, up to...

Université de Fribourg

Consolidated and labile odor memory are separately encoded within the Drosophila brain

Scheunemann, Lisa ; Jost, Eva ; Richlitzki, Antje ; Day, Jonathan P. ; Sebastian, Sujith ; Thum, Andreas S. ; Efetova, Marina ; Davies, Shireen-A. ; Schwärzel, Martin

In: The Journal of Neuroscience, 2012, no. 32, p. 17163-17171

Memories are classified as consolidated (stable) or labile according to whether they withstand amnestic treatment, or not. In contrast to the general prevalence of this classification, its neuronal and molecular basis is poorly understood. Here, we focused on consolidated and labile memories induced after a single cycle training in the Drosophila aversive olfactory conditioning paradigm and we...

Université de Fribourg

The serotonergic central nervous system of the drosophila larva: anatomy and behavioral function

Huser, Annina ; Rohwedder, Astrid ; Apostolopoulou, Anthi A. ; Widmann, Annekathrin ; Pfitzenmaier, Johanna E. R. ; Maiolo, Elena M. ; Selcho, Mareike ; Pauls, Dennis ; Essen, Alina von ; Gupta, Tripti ; Sprecher, Simon G. ; Birman, Serge ; Riemensperger, Thomas ; Stocker, Reinhard F. ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: PLoS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, no. 10, p. e47518

The Drosophila larva has turned into a particularly simple model system for studying the neuronal basis of innate behaviors and higher brain functions. Neuronal networks involved in olfaction, gustation, vision and learning and memory have been described during the last decade, often up to the single-cell level. Thus, most of these sensory networks are substantially defined, from the sensory...

Université de Fribourg

The role of octopamine and tyramine in Drosophila larval locomotion

Selcho, Mareike ; Pauls, Dennis ; Jundi, Basil el ; Stocker, Reinhard F. ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2012, p. -

The characteristic crawling behavior of Drosophila larvae consists of a series of rhythmic waves of peristalsis and episodes of head swinging and turning. The two biogenic amines octopamine and tyramine have recently been shown to modulate various parameters of locomotion, such as muscle contraction, the time spent in pausing or forward locomotion and the initiation and maintenance of rhythmic...

Université de Fribourg

Nutritional value–Dependent and nutritional value–Independent effects on Drosophila melanogaster larval behavior

Rohwedder, Astrid ; Pfitzenmaier, Johanna E. ; Ramsperger, Noel ; Apostolopoulou, Anthi A. ; Widmann, Annekathrin ; Thum, Andreas S.

In: Chemical Senses, 2012, vol. 37, no. 8, p. 711-721

Gustatory stimuli allow an organism not only to orient in its environment toward energy-rich food sources to maintain nutrition but also to avoid unpleasant or even poisonous substrates. For both mammals and insects, sugars—perceived as “sweet”—potentially predict nutritional benefit. Interestingly, even Drosophila adult flies are attracted to most high-potency sweeteners preferred by...

Université de Fribourg

Diversity, variability, and suboesophageal connectivity of antennal lobe neurons in D. melanogaster larvae

Thum, Andreas S. ; Leisibach, Basil ; Gendre, Nanaë ; Selcho, Mareike ; Stocker, Reinhard F.

In: The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2011, vol. 59, no. 17, p. 3415–3432

Whereas the “vertical” elements of the insect olfactory pathway, the olfactory receptor neurons and the projection neurons, have been studied in great detail, local interneurons providing “horizontal” connections in the antennal lobe were ignored for a long time. Recent studies in adult Drosophila demonstrate diverse roles for these neurons in the integration of odor information,...

See also: similar author names
12 Thum, Andreas S.