Comparative studies of four Drosophila P-insertion mutants with memory defects.

Studies of conditioned reflex courtship suppression in mutant Drosophila males in two tests--a memory retention test (with a virgin female) and a repeat training test (with a fertilized female)--yielded experimental support for a previously suggested physiological model of the acquisition of this reflex. Mutations altered both types of conditioned association suggested in the model, i.e.

Identification of Drosophila mutant with memory defects after acquisition of conditioned reflex suppression of courtship.

Four lines were selected from a collection of 33 lines prepared by P insertion mutagenesis using a single-copy P-element system; the males of these four lines showed memory defects after acquisition of conditioned reflex suppression of courting. In two lines (P171 and P95), the dynamics of retention of the conditioned reflex in the repeated impregnated-female courting test were similar to those of known short-term memory mutants dnc and rut. In line P153, the dynamics were more reminiscent of the memory dynamics in a known medium-term memory mutant, amn.