The Genetic Basis of Learning and Memory Drosophila melanogaster.. Drosophila melanogaster

This project aims to characterize gene expression of place learning and memory between high and low cohorts of the Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource (DSPR). The DSPR allows us to perform high resolution QTL mapping to identify genetic loci within the genome that are influencing place learning and memory. However, the resolution of this mapping population is not able to identify single candidate genes. To further fine map the QTL regions, we performed RNA-sequencing on 7 high performing and 7 low performing genotypes and pooled a total of 35 female heads into a single sample, with 5 heads from each RIL contributing to each sample. We then, identified genes that were significantly differentially expressed between the different cohorts.