Maturation of a central brain flight circuit in Drosophila requires Fz2/Ca2+ signaling
Abstract
The final identity of a differentiated neuron is determined by multiple signaling events, including activity dependent calcium transients. Non-canonical Frizzled2 (Fz2) signaling generates calcium transients that determine neuronal polarity, neuronal migration and synapse assembly in the developing vertebrate brain. Here, we demonstrate a requirement for Fz2/Ca2+ signaling in determining the final differentiated state of a set of central brain dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila, referred to as the PAM cluster. Knockdown or inhibition of Fz2/Ca2+ signaling during maturation of the flight circuit in pupae reduces Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH) expression in the PAM neurons and affects maintenance of flight. Thus we demonstrate that Fz2/Ca2+ transients during development serve as a pre-requisite for normal adult behavior. Our results support a neural mechanism where PAM neuron send projections to the α' and β' lobes of a higher brain centre, the mushroom body, and function in dopaminergic re-inforcement of flight.
Article and author information
Author details
Copyright
© 2015, Agrawal & Hasan
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 2,471
- views
-
- 519
- downloads
-
- 24
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Developmental Biology
Proteins that allow water to move in and out of cells help shape the development of new blood vessels.
-
- Developmental Biology
- Neuroscience
The ligand Netrin mediates axon guidance through a combination of haptotaxis over short distances and chemotaxis over longer distances.