Abstract
ABSTRACTIn the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, the daily cycle of rest and activity is a rhythmic behavior that relies on the activity of a small number of neurons. The small ventral lateral neurons (sLNvs) are considered key in the control of locomotor rhythmicity. Previous work from our laboratory has showed that these neurons undergo structural remodeling on their axonal projections on a daily basis. Such remodeling endows sLNvs with the possibility to make synaptic contacts with different partners at different times throughout the day, as has been previously described. By using different genetic tools to alter membrane excitability of the sLNv putative postsynaptic partners, we tested their functional role in the control of locomotor activity. We also used optical imaging to test the functionality of these contacts. We found that these different neuronal groups affect the consolidation of rhythmic activity, suggesting that non-circadian cells are part of the circuit that controls locomotor activity. Our results suggest that new neuronal groups, in addition to the well-characterized clock neurons, contribute to the operations of the circadian network that controls locomotor activity in D. melanogaster.
Highlights
Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model system to study circadian rhythms
Through behavioral experiments in which we altered the excitability of these cells, we show that non-clock neurons that are contacted by the sLNvs have an impact on rhythmic patterns of locomotor activity, suggesting that these neurons are part of the output pathway that executes those behaviors whose activity is coordinated by upstream clock neurons
The GAL4 driver OK107, which is expressed in the α/β and γ lobes of the mushroom body (MB) and, to a lesser extent, in the pars intercerebralis (PI) was used in the GFP reconstitution across synaptic partners (GRASP) analysis
Summary
Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model system to study circadian rhythms. The daily cycles of rest and activity are one of the outputs of the circadian circuit that have been used to test the functionality of the system. The evidence around the control of these cycles is ample, and in flies, the circadian network that controls this and other behaviors is relatively small, comprising around 200 neurons organized in a small number of clusters in the central nervous system (Helfrich-Förster, 2003; Kaneko and Hall, 2000). Among all the different groups, the cluster that includes the Laboratorio de Genética del Comportamiento, Fundación Instituto Leloir and Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquıḿ icas–Buenos Aires (IIB–BA, CONICET), 1425 Buenos Aires, Argentina. *Present address: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Fisiologıá , Biologıá Molecular y Celular and CONICET–Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Fisiologıá , Biologıá Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIByNE), 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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