TY - JOUR
T1 - Anatomic and physiologic heterogeneity of subgroup-a auditory sensory neurons in fruit flies
AU - Ishikawa, Yuki
AU - Okamoto, Natsuki
AU - Nakamura, Mizuki
AU - Kim, Hyunsoo
AU - Kamikouchi, Azusa
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by PRESTO program in ?Decoding and Controlling Brain Information? from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science to AK, the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 16H04655 to AK, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 26870264 to YI, and the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovate Areas ?Memory dynamism? 25115007 to AK from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Ishikawa, Okamoto, Nakamura, Kim and Kamikouchi.
PY - 2017/6/28
Y1 - 2017/6/28
N2 - The antennal ear of the fruit fly detects acoustic signals in intraspecific communication, such as the courtship song and agonistic sounds. Among the five subgroups of mechanosensory neurons in the fly ear, subgroup-A neurons respond maximally to vibrations over a wide frequency range between 100 and 1,200 Hz. The functional organization of the neural circuit comprised of subgroup-A neurons, however, remains largely unknown. In the present study, we used 11 GAL4 strains that selectively label subgroup-A neurons and explored the diversity of subgroup-A neurons by combining single-cell anatomic analysis and Ca2+ imaging. Our findings indicate that the subgroup-A neurons that project into various combinations of subareas in the brain are more anatomically diverse than previously described. Subgroup-A neurons were also physiologically diverse, and some types were tuned to a narrow frequency range, suggesting that the response of subgroup-A neurons to sounds of a wide frequency range is due to the existence of several types of subgroup-A neurons. Further, we found that an auditory behavioral response to the courtship song of flies was attenuated when most subgroup-A neurons were silenced. Together, these findings characterize the heterogeneous functional organization of subgroup-A neurons, which might facilitate species-specific acoustic signal detection.
AB - The antennal ear of the fruit fly detects acoustic signals in intraspecific communication, such as the courtship song and agonistic sounds. Among the five subgroups of mechanosensory neurons in the fly ear, subgroup-A neurons respond maximally to vibrations over a wide frequency range between 100 and 1,200 Hz. The functional organization of the neural circuit comprised of subgroup-A neurons, however, remains largely unknown. In the present study, we used 11 GAL4 strains that selectively label subgroup-A neurons and explored the diversity of subgroup-A neurons by combining single-cell anatomic analysis and Ca2+ imaging. Our findings indicate that the subgroup-A neurons that project into various combinations of subareas in the brain are more anatomically diverse than previously described. Subgroup-A neurons were also physiologically diverse, and some types were tuned to a narrow frequency range, suggesting that the response of subgroup-A neurons to sounds of a wide frequency range is due to the existence of several types of subgroup-A neurons. Further, we found that an auditory behavioral response to the courtship song of flies was attenuated when most subgroup-A neurons were silenced. Together, these findings characterize the heterogeneous functional organization of subgroup-A neurons, which might facilitate species-specific acoustic signal detection.
KW - Acoustic communication
KW - Auditory behavior
KW - Ca imaging
KW - Courtship song
KW - Drosophila
KW - Insect
KW - Johnston’s organ
KW - Mechanosensory
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U2 - 10.3389/fncir.2017.00046
DO - 10.3389/fncir.2017.00046
M3 - Article
C2 - 28701929
AN - SCOPUS:85021369629
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Neural Circuits
JF - Frontiers in Neural Circuits
SN - 1662-5110
M1 - 46
ER -