Conserved neural circuit structure across Drosophila larva development revealed by comparative connectomics

  1. Stephan Gerhard
  2. Ingrid Andrade
  3. Richard D Fetter
  4. Albert Cardona
  5. Casey M Schneider-Mizell  Is a corresponding author
  1. Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States

Abstract

During postembryonic development, the nervous system must adapt to a growing body. How changes in neuronal structure and connectivity contribute to the maintenance of appropriate circuit function remains unclear. In a previous paper (Schneider-Mizell et al., 2016), we measured the cellular neuroanatomy underlying synaptic connectivity in Drosophila. Here, we examined how neuronal morphology and connectivity change between 1st instar and 3rd instar larval stages using serial section electron microscopy. We reconstructed nociceptive circuits in a larva of each stage and found consistent topographically arranged connectivity between identified neurons. Five-fold increases in each size, number of terminal dendritic branches, and total number of synaptic inputs were accompanied by cell-type specific connectivity changes that preserved the fraction of total synaptic input associated with each presynaptic partner. We propose that precise patterns of structural growth act to conserve the computational function of a circuit, for example determining the location of a dangerous stimulus.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Stephan Gerhard

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Ingrid Andrade

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

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

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4941-6536
  5. Casey M Schneider-Mizell

    Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States
    For correspondence
    schneidermizellc@janelia.hhmi.org
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9477-3853

Funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  • Stephan Gerhard
  • Ingrid Andrade
  • Richard D Fetter
  • Albert Cardona
  • Casey M Schneider-Mizell

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2017, Gerhard 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. Stephan Gerhard
  2. Ingrid Andrade
  3. Richard D Fetter
  4. Albert Cardona
  5. Casey M Schneider-Mizell
(2017)
Conserved neural circuit structure across Drosophila larva development revealed by comparative connectomics
eLife 6:e29089.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29089

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29089

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