Three-wavelength light control of freely moving Drosophila Melanogaster for less perturbation and efficient social-behavioral studies

Fine-grained descending control of steering in walking Drosophila

Locomotion involves rhythmic limb movement patterns that originate in circuits outside the brain. Purposeful locomotion requires descending commands from the brain, but we do not understand how these commands are structured. Here, we investigate this issue, focusing on the control of steering in walking Drosophila. First, we describe different limb "gestures" associated with different steering maneuvers. Next, we identify a set of descending neurons whose activity predicts steering. Focusing on two descending cell types downstream of distinct brain networks, we show that they evoke specific limb gestures: one lengthens strides on the outside of a turn, while the other attenuates strides on the inside of a turn. Our results suggest that a single descending neuron can have opposite effects during different locomotor rhythm phases, and we identify networks positioned to implement this phase-specific gating. Together, our results show how purposeful locomotion emerges from specific, coordinated modulations of low-level patterns.

Multiphoton imaging of neural structure and activity in Drosophila through the intact cuticle

We developed a multiphoton imaging method to capture neural structure and activity in behaving flies through the intact cuticle. Our measurements showed that the fly head cuticle has surprisingly high transmission at wavelengths >900nm, and the difficulty of through-cuticle imaging is due to the air sacs and/or fat tissue underneath the head cuticle. By compressing or removing the air sacs, we performed multiphoton imaging of the fly brain through the intact cuticle. Our anatomical and functional imaging results show that 2- and 3-photon imaging are comparable in superficial regions such as the mushroom body, but 3-photon imaging is superior in deeper regions such as the central complex and beyond. We further demonstrated 2-photon through-cuticle functional imaging of odor-evoked calcium responses from the mushroom body γ-lobes in behaving flies short term and long term. The through-cuticle imaging method developed here extends the time limits of in vivo imaging in flies and opens new ways to capture neural structure and activity from the fly brain.

Optogenetic delivery of trophic signals in a genetic model of Parkinson's disease

Optogenetics has been harnessed to shed new mechanistic light on current and future therapeutic strategies. This has been to date achieved by the regulation of ion flow and electrical signals in neuronal cells and neural circuits that are known to be affected by disease. In contrast, the optogenetic delivery of trophic biochemical signals, which support cell survival and are implicated in degenerative disorders, has never been demonstrated in an animal model of disease. Here, we reengineered the human and Drosophila melanogaster REarranged during Transfection (hRET and dRET) receptors to be activated by light, creating one-component optogenetic tools termed Opto-hRET and Opto-dRET. Upon blue light stimulation, these receptors robustly induced the MAPK/ERK proliferative signaling pathway in cultured cells. In PINK1B9 flies that exhibit loss of PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1), a kinase associated with familial Parkinson's disease (PD), light activation of Opto-dRET suppressed mitochondrial defects, tissue degeneration and behavioral deficits. In human cells with PINK1 loss-of-function, mitochondrial fragmentation was rescued using Opto-dRET via the PI3K/NF-кB pathway. Our results demonstrate that a light-activated receptor can ameliorate disease hallmarks in a genetic model of PD. The optogenetic delivery of trophic signals is cell type-specific and reversible and thus has the potential to inspire novel strategies towards a spatio-temporal regulation of tissue repair.

Toward Whole-Body Connectomics

Recent advances in neuro-technologies have revolutionized knowledge of brain structure and functions. Governments and private organizations worldwide have initiated several large-scale brain connectome projects, to further understand how the brain works at the systems levels. Most recent projects focus on only brain neurons, with the exception of an early effort to reconstruct the 302 neurons that comprise the whole body of the small worm, Caenorhabditis elegans However, to fully elucidate the neural circuitry of complex behavior, it is crucial to understand brain interactions with the whole body, which can be achieved only by mapping the whole-body connectome. In this article, we discuss the current state of connectomics study, focusing on novel optical approaches and related imaging technologies. We also discuss the challenges encountered by scientists who endeavor to map these whole-body connectomes in large animals.

Flyception: imaging brain activity in freely walking fruit flies

Genetically encoded calcium sensors have enabled monitoring of neural activity in vivo using optical imaging techniques. Linking neural activity to complex behavior remains challenging, however, as most imaging systems require tethering the animal, which can impact the animal's behavioral repertoire. Here, we report a method for monitoring the brain activity of untethered, freely walking Drosophila melanogaster during sensorially and socially evoked behaviors to facilitate the study of neural mechanisms that underlie naturalistic behaviors.

Optogenetic Manipulation of Selective Neural Activity in Free-Moving Drosophila Adults

Activating selected neurons elicits specific behaviors in Drosophila adults. By combining optogenetics and laser-tracking techniques, we have recently developed an automated laser-tracking and optogenetic manipulation system (ALTOMS) for studying how brain circuits orchestrate complex behaviors. The established ALTOMS can independently target three lasers (473-nm blue laser, 593.5-nm yellow laser, and 1064-nm infrared laser) on any specified body part of two freely moving flies. Triggering light-sensitive proteins in real time, the blue laser and yellow laser can respectively activate and inhibit target neurons in artificial transgenic flies. Since infrared light is invisible to flies, we use the 1064-nm laser as an aversive stimulus in operant learning without perturbing visual inputs. Herein, we provide a detailed protocol for the construction of ALTOMS and optogenetic manipulation of target neurons in Drosophila adults during social interactions.

Proprioceptive feedback determines visuomotor gain in Drosophila

Multisensory integration is a prerequisite for effective locomotor control in most animals. Especially, the impressive aerial performance of insects relies on rapid and precise integration of multiple sensory modalities that provide feedback on different time scales. In flies, continuous visual signalling from the compound eyes is fused with phasic proprioceptive feedback to ensure precise neural activation of wing steering muscles (WSM) within narrow temporal phase bands of the stroke cycle. This phase-locked activation relies on mechanoreceptors distributed over wings and gyroscopic halteres. Here we investigate visual steering performance of tethered flying fruit flies with reduced haltere and wing feedback signalling. Using a flight simulator, we evaluated visual object fixation behaviour, optomotor altitude control and saccadic escape reflexes. The behavioural assays show an antagonistic effect of wing and haltere signalling on visuomotor gain during flight. Compared with controls, suppression of haltere feedback attenuates while suppression of wing feedback enhances the animal's wing steering range. Our results suggest that the generation of motor commands owing to visual perception is dynamically controlled by proprioception. We outline a potential physiological mechanism based on the biomechanical properties of WSM and sensory integration processes at the level of motoneurons. Collectively, the findings contribute to our general understanding how moving animals integrate sensory information with dynamically changing temporal structure.

Non-invasive manipulation of Drosophila behavior by two-photon excited red-activatable channelrhodopsin

Scattering and absorption limit light penetration through inhomogeneous tissue. To reduce scattering, biochemists have shifted the wavelengths of excitation light for optogenetic actuators and fluorescent proteins to the orange-red range, while physicists have developed multiphoton technologies for deep tissue stimulation. We have built a rapid multiphoton spectroscopic screening system of genetically encoded red-activatable channelrhodopsin (ReaChR), and considered specific behaviors in transgenic Drosophila melanogaster as readouts to optimize the laser parameters for two-photon optogenetic activation. A wavelength-tunable optical parametric amplifier was adopted as the major light source for widefield two-photon excitation (TPE) of ReaChR. Our assays suggest that the optimized TPE wavelength of ReaChR is 1250 nm. Exploiting its capacity for optogenetic manipulation to induce macroscopic behavioral change, we realized rapid spectroscopic screening of genetically encoded effectors or indicators in vivo, and used modulation of ReaChR in the fly as a successful demonstration of such a system.