Pre-Pulse Inhibition of an escape response in adult fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster

TL;DR

Researchers found that fruit flies show a neural response called Pre-Pulse Inhibition, similar to mammals, which could help study mental disorders using a simpler model.

Contribution

The study introduces a high-throughput-compatible PPI paradigm in Drosophila and shows its relevance to neuropsychiatric disorders.

Findings

Drosophila exhibits Pre-Pulse Inhibition with parameters similar to mammals.

PPI in fruit flies is affected by genetic perturbations linked to schizophrenia.

Using Drosophila can reduce reliance on mammalian models for studying mental disorders.

Abstract

Pre-Pulse Inhibition (PPI) is a neural process where suppression of a startle response is elicited by preceding the startling stimulus (Pulse) with a weak, non-startling one (Pre-Pulse). Defective PPI is widely employed as a behavioural endophenotype in humans and mammalian disorder-relevant models for neuropsychiatric disorders. We have developed a user-friendly, semi-automated, high-throughput-compatible Drosophila light-off jump response PPI paradigm, with which we demonstrate that PPI, with similar parameters measured in mammals, exists in adults of this model organism. We report that Drosophila PPI is affected by reduced expression of Dysbindin and both reduced and increased expression of Nmdar1 (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 1), perturbations associated with schizophrenia. Studying the biology of PPI in an organism that offers an abundance of genetic tools and a complex and well characterized connectome will greatly facilitate our efforts to gain deeper insight into the aetiology of human mental disorders, while reducing the need for mammalian models.

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