Animals of many species are capable of "small data" learning, that is, of learning without repetition. Here we introduce larval "Drosophila melanogaster" as a relatively simple study case for such one-trial learning. Using odor-food associative conditioning, we first show that a sugar that is both sweet and nutritious…

Synapsin is an evolutionarily conserved presynaptic phosphoprotein. It is encoded by only one gene in the "Drosophila" genome and is expressed throughout the nervous system. It regulates the balance between reserve and releasable vesicles, is required to maintain transmission upon heavy demand, and is essential for proper memory function…