An unbiased template of the Drosophila brain and ventral nerve cord

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an important model organism for neuroscience with a wide array of genetic tools that enable the mapping of individual neurons and neural subtypes. Brain templates are essential for comparative biological studies because they enable analyzing many individuals in a common reference space. Several central brain templates exist for Drosophila, but every one is either biased, uses sub-optimal tissue preparation, is imaged at low resolution, or does not account for artifacts. No publicly available Drosophila ventral nerve cord template currently exists. In this work, we created high-resolution templates of the Drosophila brain and ventral nerve cord using the best-available technologies for imaging, artifact correction, stitching, and template construction using groupwise registration. We evaluated our central brain template against the four most competitive, publicly available brain templates and demonstrate that ours enables more accurate registration with fewer local deformations in shorter time.

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An unbiased template of theDrosophilabrain and ventral nerve cord

10.1101/376384 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

John A Bogovic ◽

Hideo Otsuna ◽

Larissa Heinrich ◽

Masayoshi Ito ◽

Jennifer Jeter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

Model Organism ◽

Fruit Fly ◽

Tissue Preparation ◽

Best Available Technologies ◽

Common Reference ◽

Biological Studies ◽

Reference Space ◽

Central Brain

AbstractThe fruit flyDrosophila melanogasteris an important model organism for neuroscience with a wide array of genetic tools that enable the mapping of individuals neurons and neural subtypes. Brain templates are essential for comparative biological studies because they enable analyzing many individuals in a common reference space. Several central brain templates exist forDrosophila, but every one is either biased, uses sub-optimal tissue preparation, is imaged at low resolution, or does not account for artifacts. No publicly availableDrosophilaventral nerve cord template currently exists. In this work, we created high-resolution templates of theDrosophilabrain and ventral nerve cord using the best-available technologies for imaging, artifact correction, stitching, and template construction using groupwise registration. We evaluated our central brain template against the four most competitive, publicly available brain templates and demonstrate that ours enables more accurate registration with fewer local deformations in shorter time.

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Differential control of Yorkie activity by LKB1/AMPK and the Hippo/Warts cascade in the central nervous system

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1505512112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (37) ◽

pp. E5169-E5178 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Ieva Gailite ◽

Birgit L. Aerne ◽

Nicolas Tapon

Keyword(s):

Central Nervous System ◽

Nervous System ◽

Tumor Suppressor ◽

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

Tissue Growth ◽

Binding Motif ◽

Transcriptional Coactivator ◽

Central Brain ◽

The Central Nervous System

The Hippo (Hpo) pathway is a highly conserved tumor suppressor network that restricts developmental tissue growth and regulates stem cell proliferation and differentiation. At the heart of the Hpo pathway is the progrowth transcriptional coactivator Yorkie [Yki–Yes-activated protein (YAP)/transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) in mammals]. Yki activity is restricted through phosphorylation by the Hpo/Warts core kinase cascade, but increasing evidence indicates that core kinase-independent modes of regulation also play an important role. Here, we examine Yki regulation in the Drosophila larval central nervous system and uncover a Hpo/Warts-independent function for the tumor suppressor kinase liver kinase B1 (LKB1) and its downstream effector, the energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), in repressing Yki activity in the central brain/ventral nerve cord. Although the Hpo/Warts core cascade restrains Yki in the optic lobe, it is dispensable for Yki target gene repression in the late larval central brain/ventral nerve cord. Thus, we demonstrate a dramatically different wiring of Hpo signaling in neighboring cell populations of distinct developmental origins in the central nervous system.

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Extracellular filaments in the perineurium of the florida lobster, Panulirus argus

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100128237 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 784-785

Author(s):

Roy J. Baerwald ◽

Lura C. Williamson

Keyword(s):

Blood Brain Barrier ◽

Glial Cells ◽

Tannic Acid ◽

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

Florida Keys ◽

Panulirus Argus ◽

Brain Barrier ◽

Cacodylate Buffer ◽

Nerve Cords

In arthropods the perineurium surrounds the neuropile, consists of modified glial cells, and is the morphological basis for the blood-brain barrier. The perineurium is surrounded by an acellular neural lamella, sometimes containing scattered collagen-like fibrils. This perineurial-neural lamellar complex is thought to occur ubiquitously throughout the arthropods. This report describes a SEM and TEM study of the sheath surrounding the ventral nerve cord of Panulirus argus.Juvenile P. argus were collected from the Florida Keys and maintained in marine aquaria. Nerve cords were fixed for TEM in Karnovsky's fixative and saturated tannic acid in 0.1 M Na-cacodylate buffer, pH = 7.4; post-fixed in 1.0% OsO4 in the same buffer; dehydrated through a graded series of ethanols; embedded in Epon-Araldite; and examined in a Philips 200 TEM. Nerve cords were fixed for SEM in a similar manner except that tannic acid was not used.

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Visualization of NO-producible neurons and NO production in the ventral nerve cord of the earthworm

Neuroscience Research ◽

10.1016/s0168-0102(00)81192-x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. S58

Author(s):

Y Kitamura

Keyword(s):

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

No Production

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Immunoglobulin-domain proteins required for maintenance of ventral nerve cord organization.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1004347.50306 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Hodgkin

Keyword(s):

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

Immunoglobulin Domain

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Mutations Affecting Nerve Attachment of Caenorhabditis elegans

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/157.4.1611 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 157 (4) ◽

pp. 1611-1622 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Go Shioi ◽

Michinari Shoji ◽

Masashi Nakamura ◽

Takeshi Ishihara ◽

Isao Katsura ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽

Nerve Cord ◽

Ventral Nerve Cord ◽

Body Wall ◽

The Body ◽

Genetic Loci ◽

Muscle Attachment ◽

C Elegans ◽

Ventral Cord ◽

Excretory Canal

Abstract Using a pan-neuronal GFP marker, a morphological screen was performed to detect Caenorhabditis elegans larval lethal mutants with severely disorganized major nerve cords. We recovered and characterized 21 mutants that displayed displacement or detachment of the ventral nerve cord from the body wall (Ven: ventral cord abnormal). Six mutations defined three novel genetic loci: ven-1, ven-2, and ven-3. Fifteen mutations proved to be alleles of previously identified muscle attachment/positioning genes, mup-4, mua-1, mua-5, and mua-6. All the mutants also displayed muscle attachment/positioning defects characteristic of mua/mup mutants. The pan-neuronal GFP marker also revealed that mutants of other mua/mup loci, such as mup-1, mup-2, and mua-2, exhibited the Ven defect. The hypodermis, the excretory canal, and the gonad were morphologically abnormal in some of the mutants. The pleiotropic nature of the defects indicates that ven and mua/mup genes are required generally for the maintenance of attachment of tissues to the body wall in C. elegans.

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Quantitative investigation reveals distinct phases in Drosophila sleep

Communications Biology ◽

10.1038/s42003-021-01883-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xiaochan Xu ◽

Wei Yang ◽

Binghui Tian ◽

Xiuwen Sui ◽

Weilai Chi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

General Pattern ◽

Model Organism ◽

Infrared Camera ◽

Fruit Fly ◽

Genetic Dissection ◽

Power Law Distribution ◽

Quantitative Investigation ◽

Waking Up ◽

Set Up

AbstractThe fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been used as a model organism for the molecular and genetic dissection of sleeping behaviors. However, most previous studies were based on qualitative or semi-quantitative characterizations. Here we quantified sleep in flies. We set up an assay to continuously track the activity of flies using infrared camera, which monitored the movement of tens of flies simultaneously with high spatial and temporal resolution. We obtained accurate statistics regarding the rest and sleep patterns of single flies. Analysis of our data has revealed a general pattern of rest and sleep: the rest statistics obeyed a power law distribution and the sleep statistics obeyed an exponential distribution. Thus, a resting fly would start to move again with a probability that decreased with the time it has rested, whereas a sleeping fly would wake up with a probability independent of how long it had slept. Resting transits to sleeping at time scales of minutes. Our method allows quantitative investigations of resting and sleeping behaviors and our results provide insights for mechanisms of falling into and waking up from sleep.

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