Excess protein synthesis in Drosophila fragile X mutants impairs long-term memory.

Abstract

We used Drosophila olfactory memory as a model to study the molecular basis of cognitive defects in Fragile X syndrome in vivo. We observed that fragile X protein was acutely required and interacted with argonaute1 and staufen in the formation of long-term memory. Occlusion of long-term memory formation in Fragile X mutants could be rescued by protein synthesis inhibitors, suggesting that excess baseline protein synthesis could negatively affect cognition.