The neurotransmitter of the mushroom body is acetylcholine!

Memories are stored in the fan-out fan-in neural architectures of the mammalian cerebellum and hippocampus and the insect mushroom bodies. However, whereas key plasticity occurs at glutamatergic synapses in mammals, the neurochemistry of the memory-storing mushroom body Kenyon cell output synapses has been debated for decades. A recent study from the Waddell lab in Neuron shows acetylcholine is a Kenyon cell neurotransmitter in Drosophila. Olfactory memories must be coded as weight changes of cholinergic synapses.

The full paper can be viewed Barnstedt et al. (2016).

Oliver Barnstedt talks about his work in a short film, entitled The Memory Molecule.

Drosophila dorsal paired medial neurons provide a general mechanism for memory consolidation

Sequential use of mushroom body neuron subsets during drosophila odor memory processing

Drosophila olfactory memory: single genes to complex neural circuits

Rapid consolidation to a radish and protein synthesis-dependent long-term memory after single-session appetitive olfactory conditioning in Drosophila

Cryptochrome mediates light-dependent magnetosensitivity in Drosophila

Learned odor discrimination in Drosophila without combinatorial odor maps in the antennal lobe

A neural circuit mechanism integrating motivational state with memory expression in Drosophila

Dopamine reveals neural circuit mechanisms of fly memory

Remembering nutrient quality of sugar in Drosophila