Extensive and diverse patterns of cell death sculpt neural networks in insects
Abstract
Changes to the structure and function of neural networks are thought to underlie the evolutionary adaptation of animal behaviours. Among the many developmental phenomena that generate change programmed cell death appears to play a key role. We show that cell death occurs continuously throughout insect neurogenesis and happens soon after neurons are born. Mimicking an evolutionary role for increasing cell numbers, we artificially block programmed cell death in the medial neuroblast lineage in Drosophila melanogaster, which results in the production of 'undead' neurons with complex arborisations and distinct neurotransmitter identities. Activation of these 'undead' neurons and recordings of neural activity in behaving animals demonstrate that they are functional. Focusing on two dipterans which have lost flight during evolution we reveal that reductions in populations of flight interneurons are likely caused by increased cell death during development. Our findings suggest that the evolutionary modulation of death-based patterning could generate novel network configurations.
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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting figures.
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Author details
Funding
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/P025552/1)
- Darren W Williams
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/L022672/1)
- Darren W Williams
SNSF (175667)
- Pavan Ramdya
Eccellenza (181239)
- Pavan Ramdya
R'Equip (177102)
- Pavan Ramdya
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Pop 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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