Abstract
The antennal ear of the fruit fly, called the Johnston’s organ (JO), detects a wide variety of mechanosensory stimuli, including sound, wind, and gravity. Like many sensory cells in insect, JO neurons are compartmentalized in a sensory unit (i.e., scolopidium). To understand how different subgroups of JO neurons are organized in each scolopidial compartment, we visualized individual JO neurons by labeling various subgroups of JO neurons in different combinations. We found that vibration-sensitive (or deflection-sensitive) neurons rarely grouped together in a single scolopidial compartment. This finding suggests that JO neurons are grouped in stereotypical combinations each with a distinct response property in a scolopidium.
Highlights
The ability to sense our surrounding environment is crucial for survival
Each scolopidium was visualized as a circle and the cilia of Johnston’s organ (JO) neurons within it appeared as dots, which were easy to quantify
We explored the organization of JO neurons in each scolopidium and revealed that most scolopidia had one vibration-sensitive JO neuron and one static deflection-sensitive JO neuron as a pair
Summary
The ability to sense our surrounding environment is crucial for survival. Animals have developed specialized sensory organs to detect various external and internal signals. Some insect species have a specialized hearing organ, the insect ear, which is located on different body parts, including the head, wings, thorax, abdomen, and legs (Gopfert and Hennig, 2016). Studies of the insect hearing system have yielded important findings ranging from the biophysics of sound perception to auditory signal processing in the brain (Coen and Murthy, 2016; Gopfert and Hennig, 2016). The JO, which is located at the second antennal segment, is the largest mechanosensory organ in fruit flies. Stimuli from an external source, such as sound, wind, or gravity, induce the movement of the antennal receiver, which activates the mechanosensory neurons in the JO, the JO neurons. JO neurons serve a vital role in the fruit fly behavior, such as the locomotor change in response to courtship sound, wind-induced suppression of locomotion, anti-geotaxis behavior, and flight control (Kamikouchi et al, 2009; Yorozu et al, 2009; Mamiya and Dickinson, 2015)
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