Distinct subpopulations of mechanosensory chordotonal organ neurons elicit grooming of the fruit fly antennae
- University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, Puerto Rico
- Nagoya University, Japan
- University of Vermont, United States
Abstract
Diverse mechanosensory neurons detect different mechanical forces that can impact animal behavior. Yet our understanding of the anatomical and physiological diversity of these neurons and the behaviors that they influence is limited. We previously discovered that grooming of the Drosophila melanogaster antennae is elicited by an antennal mechanosensory chordotonal organ, the Johnston's organ (JO) (Hampel et al., 2015). Here, we describe anatomically and physiologically distinct JO mechanosensory neuron subpopulations that each elicit antennal grooming. We show that the subpopulations project to different, discrete zones in the brain and differ in their responses to mechanical stimulation of the antennae. Although activation of each subpopulation elicits antennal grooming, distinct subpopulations also elicit the additional behaviors of wing flapping or backward locomotion. Our results provide a comprehensive description of the diversity of mechanosensory neurons in the JO, and reveal that distinct JO subpopulations can elicit both common and distinct behavioral responses.
Data availability
Neuron reconstructions will be made available on https://v2.virtualflybrain.org/
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Whitehall Foundation (2017-12-69)
- Andrew M Seeds
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (MD007600)
- Andrew M Seeds
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103642)
- Stefanie Hampel
- Andrew M Seeds
Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (2020-00195)
- Andrew M Seeds
National Science Foundation (HRD-1736019)
- Andrew M Seeds
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Hampel 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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Distinct subpopulations of mechanosensory chordotonal organ neurons elicit grooming of the fruit fly antennae
eLife 9:e59976.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59976
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