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2 Janelia Publications

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    02/26/24 | Nested neural circuits generate distinct acoustic signals during Drosophila courtship
    Joshua L. Lillvis , Kaiyu Wang , Hiroshi M. Shiozaki , Min Xu , David L. Stern , Barry J. Dickson
    Current Biology. 2024 Feb 26;34(4):808-24. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.015

    Many motor control systems generate multiple movements using a common set of muscles. How are premotor circuits able to flexibly generate diverse movement patterns? Here, we characterize the neuronal circuits that drive the distinct courtship songs of Drosophila melanogaster. Male flies vibrate their wings towards females to produce two different song modes – pulse and sine song – which signal species identity and male quality. Using cell-type specific genetic reagents and the connectome, we provide a cellular and synaptic map of the circuits in the male ventral nerve cord that generate these songs and examine how activating or inhibiting each cell type within these circuits affects the song. Our data reveal that the song circuit is organized into two nested feed-forward pathways, with extensive reciprocal and feed-back connections. The larger network produces pulse song, the more complex and ancestral song form. A subset of this network produces sine song, the simpler and more recent form. Such nested organization may be a common feature of motor control circuits in which evolution has layered increasing flexibility on to a basic movement pattern.

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    09/01/23 | The Neural Basis of Drosophila Courtship Song
    Joshua L. Lillvis , Kaiyu Wang , Hiroshi M. Shiozaki , Min Xu , David L. Stern , Barry J. Dickson
    bioRxiv. 2023 Sep 01:. doi: 10.1101/2023.08.30.555537

    Animal sounds are produced by patterned vibrations of specific organs, but the neural circuits that drive these vibrations are not well defined in any animal. Here we provide a functional and synaptic map of most of the neurons in the Drosophila male ventral nerve cord (the analog of the vertebrate spinal cord) that drive complex, patterned song during courtship. Male Drosophila vibrate their wings toward females during courtship to produce two distinct song modes – pulse and sine song – with characteristic features that signal species identity and male quality. We identified song-producing neural circuits by optogenetically activating and inhibiting identified cell types in the ventral nerve cord (VNC) and by tracing their patterns of synaptic connectivity in the male VNC connectome. The core song circuit consists of at least eight cell types organized into overlapping circuits, where all neurons are required for pulse song and a subset are required for sine song. The pulse and sine circuits each include a feed-forward pathway from brain descending neurons to wing motor neurons, with extensive reciprocal and feed-back connections. We also identify specific neurons that shape the individual features of each song mode. These results reveal commonalities amongst diverse animals in the neural mechanisms that generate diverse motor patterns from a single set of muscles.

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