Behavioral dissection of the peripheral visual system of Drosophila melanogaster
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1
Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
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2
Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
Fly motion vision has emerged as an important system for studying specific neuronal computations within an anatomically well-described circuit. The best described structure in flies is the lamina, the peripheral layer of the optic lobes that has been extensively characterized with light and electron microscopy. Significant progress towards identifying a functional role for identified neurons is now possible in Drosophila thanks to modern molecular-genetic tools. The lack of driver lines that restrict expression to single cell types has hampered previous studies, resulting in several compelling, but somewhat contradictory findings. Using cell-type specific driver lines created with the Split-Gal4 method, and exogenous effectors, all members of a cell type can be selectively silenced in order to measure perturbations to wild-type visuomotor behavior.
To systematically characterize the contribution of every cell type with lamina expression to visual processing, we assayed a broad set of visual conditions. These stimuli were presented to tethered flies using a cylindrical LED display, and the corresponding flight reactions were recorded using an optical wing beat analyzer. The visual conditions were designed to both probe general visual function and to specifically test hypotheses about the lamina. While the tethered flight experiments are ideally suited for measuring the reactions of flies to precisely controlled visual stimuli at high temporal resolution, the interpretations of these results within the context of flight behavior can be challenging. Therefore, we have tested a subset of these lines for a related set of visually guided flight behaviors in a complementary free flight assay.
By using the broad set of psychophysical stimuli in conjunction with a neuronal silencer, the inwardly rectifying K+ channel Kir2.1, each cell-type specific driver line revealed distinct phenotypes. In some cases serendipitous combinations of cell-types further aided functional analysis. Taken together, the experimental evidence suggests that only a small number of cell types contribute directly to motion detection, while the majority of neuron classes serve to sculpt and enhance these feed-forward signals.
Keywords:
Behavior,
Drosophila,
Lamina,
motion,
Vision
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation (see alternatives below as well)
Topic:
Sensory: Vision
Citation:
Tuthill
J,
Nern
A,
Holtz
S,
Grover
D,
Rubin
G and
Reiser
MB
(2012). Behavioral dissection of the peripheral visual system of Drosophila melanogaster.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00300
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Received:
30 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Michael B Reiser, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia, United States, reiserm@janelia.hhmi.org