1. The Effects of Melatonin Supplementation on the formation of Short Term Memory in Wild Type and mutant Drosophila melanogaster

2. Need About 85% of people will go through a period in their life where they suffer from short term memory loss. http://www.somasin.com/14_SharedImages/memorylosschart.gif

3. Knowledge Base Drosophila are capable of forming short term memory Melatonin is a commonly used antioxidant and insomnia treatment http://www.thetirelesstraveler.com/images/melatonin.gif http://www.medicinescomplete.com/mc/martindale/c urrent/images/c73-31-4.gif

4. Literature Review Presente (et al.) found that testing short term memory 30 minutes after training was sufficient http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/images/fruit_fly_research03_6801.JPG

5. Budget MaterialAmountSourcePrice Dunce Drosophila Amnesiac Drosophila Canton-S Drosophila Melatonin Vial Plugs Vials 1 Vial 250mg 12 plugs 12 vials Olfactory Apparatus-- Bloomington Fly Stock Aldrich (pg 1159) Carolina Biological -- Price $21.00 $4.15 $7.25 --

6. Do Ability Drosophila accessable Olfactory apparatus is already in the lab Melatonin is acessible

7. Purpose Therefore the purpose of this experiment is to study the effects of melatonin on short term memory formation in wild type and mutant Drosophila melanogaster

8. Hypothesis H(o)- The null hypothesis states that there will be no difference in memory formation between the supplemented and non supplemented groups of drosophila. H(a)- The alternate hypothesis states that the drosophila supplemented with melatonin will show and increase in formation of STM

9. Methodology The Effects of Melatonin Supplementation on Short Term Memory formation in Wild Type and Mutant Drosophila melanogaster Wild Type Control Wild Type Supplemented Dunce Control Dunce Supplemented Amnesiac Control Amnesiac Supplemented Drosophila Supplemented with a 100 micrograms per 1 liter concentration in their food medium. Flies will be testing using olfactory testing where they will choose between a familiar scent that they were shocked with 1 day earlier, as well as a new scent that they haven’t experienced. The data will be analyzed using performance index and statistical analysis by ANOVA