@article {69721, title = {A split-GAL4 driver line resource for Drosophila neuron types}, year = {2025}, month = {01/2025}, doi = {10.7554/elife.98405.3}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.98405.3}, author = {Meissner, Geoffrey W and Vannan, Allison and Jeter, Jennifer and Close, Kari and Depasquale, Gina M and Dorman, Zachary and Forster, Kaitlyn and Beringer, Jaye Anne and Gibney, Theresa V and Hausenfluck, Joanna H and He, Yisheng and Henderson, Kristin and Johnson, Lauren and Johnston, Rebecca M and Ihrke, Gudrun and Iyer, Nirmala and Lazarus, Rachel and Lee, Kelley and Li, Hsing-Hsi and Liaw, Hua-Peng and Melton, Brian and Miller, Scott and Motaher, Reeham and Novak, Alexandra and Ogundeyi, Omotara and Petruncio, Alyson and Price, Jacquelyn and Protopapas, Sophia and Tae, Susana and Taylor, Jennifer and Vorimo, Rebecca and Yarbrough, Brianna and Zeng, Kevin Xiankun and Zugates, Christopher T and Dionne, Heather and Angstadt, Claire and Ashley, Kelly and Cavallaro, Amanda and Dang, Tam and Gonzalez, Guillermo A and Hibbard, Karen L and Huang, Cuizhen and Kao, Jui-Chun and Laverty, Todd and Mercer, Monti and Perez, Brenda and Pitts, Scarlett and Ruiz, Danielle and Vallanadu, Viruthika and Zheng, Grace Zhiyu and Goina, Cristian and Otsuna, Hideo and Rokicki, Konrad and Svirskas, Robert R and Cheong, Han Sj and Dolan, Michael-John and Ehrhardt, Erica and Feng, Kai and El Galfi, Basel and Goldammer, Jens and Huston, Stephen J and Hu, Nan and Ito, Masayoshi and McKellar, Claire and minegishi, ryo and Namiki, Shigehiro and Nern, Aljoscha and Schretter, Catherine E and Sterne, Gabriella R and Venkatasubramanian, Lalanti and Wang, Kaiyu and Wolff, Tanya and Wu, Ming and George, Reed and Malkesman, Oz and Aso, Yoshinori and Card, Gwyneth M and Dickson, Barry J and Korff, Wyatt and Ito, Kei and Truman, James W and Zlatic, Marta and Rubin, Gerald M} } @article {69301, title = {Motor neurons generate pose-targeted movements via proprioceptive sculpting.}, journal = {Nature}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Mar 20}, abstract = {

Motor neurons are the final common pathway through which the brain controls movement of the body, forming the basic elements from which all movement is composed. Yet how a single motor neuron contributes to control during natural movement remains unclear. Here we anatomically and functionally characterize the individual roles of the motor neurons that control head movement in the fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Counterintuitively, we find that activity in a single motor neuron rotates the head in different directions, depending on the starting posture of the head, such that the head converges towards a pose determined by the identity of the stimulated motor neuron. A feedback model predicts that this convergent behaviour results from motor neuron drive interacting with proprioceptive feedback. We identify and genetically suppress a single class of proprioceptive neuron that changes the motor neuron-induced convergence as predicted by the feedback model. These data suggest a framework for how the brain controls movements: instead of directly generating movement in a given direction by activating a fixed set of motor neurons, the brain controls movements by adding bias to a continuing proprioceptive-motor loop.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-024-07222-5}, author = {Gorko, Benjamin and Siwanowicz, Igor and Close, Kari and Christoforou, Christina and Hibbard, Karen L and Kabra, Mayank and Lee, Allen and Park, Jin-Yong and Li, Si Ying and Chen, Alex B and Namiki, Shigehiro and Chen, Chenghao and Tuthill, John C and Bock, Davi D and Rouault, Herv{\'e} and Branson, Kristin and Ihrke, Gudrun and Huston, Stephen J} } @article {69502, title = {Steering From the Rear: Coordination of Central Pattern Generators Underlying Navigation by Ascending Interneurons}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jun 17}, abstract = {

Understanding how animals coordinate movements to achieve goals is a fundamental pursuit in neuroscience. Here we explore how neurons that reside in posterior lower-order regions of a locomotor system and project to anterior higher-order regions influence steering and navigation. We characterized the anatomy and functional role of a population of ascending interneurons in the ventral nerve cord of Drosophila larvae. Through electron microscopy reconstructions and light microscopy, we determined that the cholinergic 19f cells receive input primarily from premotor interneurons and synapse upon a diverse array of postsynaptic targets within the anterior segments including other 19f cells. Calcium imaging of 19f activity in isolated CNS preparations in relation to motor neurons revealed that 19f neurons are recruited into most larval motor programmes. 19f activity lags behind motor neuron activity and as a population, the cells encode spatio-temporal patterns of locomotor activity in the larval CNS. Optogenetic manipulations of 19f cell activity in isolated CNS preparations revealed that they coordinate the activity of central pattern generators underlying exploratory headsweeps and forward locomotion in a context and location specific manner. In behaving animals, activating 19f cells suppressed exploratory headsweeps and slowed forward locomotion, while inhibition of 19f activity potentiated headsweeps, slowing forward movement. Inhibiting activity in 19f cells ultimately affected the ability of larvae to remain in the vicinity of an odor source during an olfactory navigation task. Overall, our findings provide insights into how ascending interneurons monitor motor activity and shape interactions amongst rhythm generators underlying complex navigational tasks.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.06.17.598162}, url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/06/17/2024.06.17.598162}, author = {Jonaitis, Julius and Hibbard, Karen L and Layte, Kaity McCafferty and Hiramoto, Atsuki and Cardona, Albert and Truman, James W and Nose, Akinao and Zwart, Maarten F and Pulver, Stefan R} } @article {49414, title = {Probing synaptic transmission and behavior in Drosophila with optogenetics: a laboratory exercise}, journal = {Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education}, volume = {16}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Summer}, pages = {A289-95}, abstract = {

Optogenetics is possibly the most revolutionary advance in neuroscience research techniques within the last decade. Here, we describe lab modules, presented at a workshop for undergraduate neuroscience educators, using optogenetic control of neurons in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila is a genetically accessible model system that combines behavioral and neurophysiological complexity, ease of use, and high research relevance. One lab module utilized two transgenic Drosophila strains, each activating specific circuits underlying startle behavior and backwards locomotion, respectively. The red-shifted channelrhodopsin, CsChrimson, was expressed in neurons sharing a common transcriptional profile, with the expression pattern further refined by the use of a Split GAL4 intersectional activation system. Another set of strains was used to investigate\ synaptic transmission at the larval neuromuscular junction. These expressed Channelrhodopsin 2 (ChR2) in glutamatergic neurons, including the motor neurons. The first strain expressed ChR2 in a wild type background, while the second contained the SNAP-25ts mutant allele, which confers heightened evoked potential amplitude and greatly increased spontaneous vesicle release frequency at the larval neuromuscular junction. These modules introduced educators and students to the use of optogenetic stimulation to control behavior and evoked release at a model synapse, and establish a basis for students to explore neurophysiology using this technique, through recapitulating classic experiments and conducting independent research.\ 

}, url = {http://www.funjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/june-16-289.pdf?x91298}, author = {Vilinksy, Ilya and Hibbard, Karen L and Johnson Bruce R and Deitcher, David L} } @article {48845, title = {Genetic reagents for making split-GAL4 lines in Drosophila.}, journal = {Genetics }, volume = {209}, year = {2017}, month = {2018 March}, pages = {31-5}, abstract = {

The ability to reproducibly target expression of transgenes to small, defined subsets of cells is a key experimental tool for understanding many biological processes. The Drosophila nervous system contains thousands of distinct cell types and it has generally not been possible to limit expression to one or a few cell types when using a single segment of genomic DNA as an enhancer to drive expression. Intersectional methods, in which expression of the transgene only occurs where two different enhancers overlap in their expression patterns, can be used to achieve the desired specificity. This report describes a set of over 2,800 transgenic lines for use with the split-GAL4 intersectional method.

}, doi = {10.1101/197509}, author = {Dionne, Heather and Hibbard, Karen L and Cavallaro, Amanda and Kao, Jui-Chun and Rubin, Gerald M} } @article {987, title = {Refinement of tools for targeted gene expression in Drosophila.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {186}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct}, pages = {735-55}, abstract = {

A wide variety of biological experiments rely on the ability to express an exogenous gene in a transgenic animal at a defined level and in a spatially and temporally controlled pattern. We describe major improvements of the methods available for achieving this objective in Drosophila melanogaster. We have systematically varied core promoters, UTRs, operator sequences, and transcriptional activating domains used to direct gene expression with the GAL4, LexA, and Split GAL4 transcription factors and the GAL80 transcriptional repressor. The use of site-specific integration allowed us to make quantitative comparisons between different constructs inserted at the same genomic location. We also characterized a set of PhiC31 integration sites for their ability to support transgene expression of both drivers and responders in the nervous system. The increased strength and reliability of these optimized reagents overcome many of the previous limitations of these methods and will facilitate genetic manipulations of greater complexity and sophistication.

}, issn = {1943-2631}, doi = {10.1534/genetics.110.119917}, author = {Pfeiffer, Barret D and Ngo, Teri-T B and Hibbard, Karen L and Murphy, Christine and Jenett, Arnim and Truman, James W and Rubin, Gerald M} }