Direct neural pathways convey distinct visual information to Drosophila mushroom bodies

  1. Katrin Vogt
  2. Yoshinori Aso
  3. Toshihide Hige
  4. Stephan Knapek
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose
  6. Anja B Friedrich
  7. Glenn C Turner
  8. Gerald M Rubin
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto  Is a corresponding author
  1. Harvard University, United States
  2. Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
  3. Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Germany

Abstract

Previously, we identified that visual and olfactory associative memories of Drosophila share the mushroom body (MB) circuits (Vogt et al. 2014). Despite well-characterized odor representations in the Drosophila MB, the MB circuit for visual information is totally unknown. Here we show that a small subset of MB Kenyon cells (KCs) selectively responds to visual but not olfactory stimulation. The dendrites of these atypical KCs form a ventral accessory calyx (vAC), distinct from the main calyx that receives olfactory input. We identified two types of visual projection neurons (VPNs) directly connecting the optic lobes and the vAC. Strikingly, these VPNs are differentially required for visual memories of color and brightness. The segregation of visual and olfactory domains in the MB allows independent processing of distinct sensory memories and may be a conserved form of sensory representations among insects.

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Author details

  1. Katrin Vogt

    Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Yoshinori Aso

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Toshihide Hige

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Stephan Knapek

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Anja B Friedrich

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Glenn C Turner

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Gerald M Rubin

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto

    Max-Planck Institut für Neurobiologie, Martinsried, Germany
    For correspondence
    hiromut@m.tohoku.ac.jp
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

© 2016, Vogt et al.

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.

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  1. Katrin Vogt
  2. Yoshinori Aso
  3. Toshihide Hige
  4. Stephan Knapek
  5. Toshiharu Ichinose
  6. Anja B Friedrich
  7. Glenn C Turner
  8. Gerald M Rubin
  9. Hiromu Tanimoto
(2016)
Direct neural pathways convey distinct visual information to Drosophila mushroom bodies
eLife 5:e14009.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14009

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