Specific components of aversive odor memory in Drosophila melanogaster

Memory is dynamic: after pairing an odor with electric shocks, flies form an aversive odor memory that lasts for several hours and consists of qualitatively different components. An anesthesia-sensitive memory component (ASM) decays rapidly, whereas a consolidated anesthesia-resistant memory component (ARM) lasts significantly longer. Here the author shows that the evolutionary conserved phosphoprotein Synapsin is selectively required for the labile ASM. Synapsin is associated with a reserve poo ...