Insights from honeybee (Apis mellifera) and fly (Drosophila melanogaster) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: From genes to behavioral functions

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are widely expressed throughout the central nervous system of insects where they supply fast synaptic excitatory transmission and represent a major target for several insecticides. The unbalance is striking between the abundant literature on nAChR sensitivity to insecticides and the rarity of information regarding their molecular properties and cognitive functions. The recent advent of genome sequencing disclosed that nAChR gene families of insects are rather small-sized compared to vertebrates. Behavioral experiments performed in the honeybee demonstrated that a subpopulation of nAChRs sensitive to the venom α-bungarotoxin and permeant to calcium is necessary for the formation of long-term memory. Concomitant data in Drosophila reported that repetitive exposure to nicotine results in a calcium-dependent plasticity of the nAChR-mediated response involving cAMP signaling cascades and indicated that ACh-induced Ca++ currents are modulated by monoamines involved in aversive and appetitive learning. As in vertebrates, in which glutamate and NMDA-type glutamate receptors are involved in experience-associated synaptic plasticity and memory formation, insects could display a comparable system based on ACh and α-Bgt-sensitive nAChRs.

► Small-sized gene families code for nicotinic acetylcholine subunits in insects.
► Huge number of homomeric and heteromeric nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are predicted.
► α-Bungarotoxin-sensitive nAChRs are involved in the formation of long term memory.
► During associative learning intracellular calcium level is modulated both by acetylcholine and monoamines.
► In insects, nAChRs support experience-induced plasticity.