The wiring diagram of a glomerular olfactory system
- Harvard University, United States
- The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Spain
- Fly Base, United States
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States
Abstract
The sense of smell enables animals to react to long-distance cues according to learned and innate valences. Here, we have mapped with electron microscopy the complete wiring diagram of the Drosophila larval antennal lobe, an olfactory neuropil similar to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. We found a canonical circuit with uniglomerular projection neurons (uPNs) relaying gain-controlled ORN activity to the mushroom body and the lateral horn. A second, parallel circuit with multiglomerular projection neurons (mPNs) and hierarchically connected local neurons (LNs) selectively integrates multiple ORN signals already at the first synapse. LN-LN synaptic connections putatively implement a bistable gain control mechanism that either computes odor saliency through panglomerular inhibition, or allows some glomeruli to respond to faint aversive odors in the presence of strong appetitive odors. This complete wiring diagram will support experimental and theoretical studies towards bridging the gap between circuits and behavior.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Ronald L Calabrese, Emory University, United States
Version history
- Received: January 30, 2016
- Accepted: May 6, 2016
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 13, 2016 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: July 1, 2016 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2016, Berck 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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The wiring diagram of a glomerular olfactory system
eLife 5:e14859.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.14859
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