A pair of ascending neurons in the subesophageal zone mediates aversive sensory inputs-evoked backward locomotion in < i > Drosophila < /i > larvae

by Natsuko Omamiuda-Ishikawa, Moeka Sakai, Kazuo Emoto Animals typically avoid unwanted situations with stereotyped escape behavior. For instance,Drosophila larvae often escape from aversive stimuli to the head, such as mechanical stimuli and blue light irradiation, by backward locomotion. Responses to these aversive stimuli are mediated by a variety of sensory neurons including mechanosensory class III da (C3da) sensory neurons and blue-light responsive class IV da (C4da) sensory neurons and Bolwig ’s organ (BO). How these distinct sensory pathways evoke backward locomotion at the circuit level is still incompletely understood. Here we show that a pair of cholinergic neurons in the subesophageal zone, designated AMBs, evoke robust backward locomotion upon optogenetic activation. Anatomical a nd functional analysis shows that AMBs act upstream of MDNs, the command-like neurons for backward locomotion. Further functional analysis indicates that AMBs preferentially convey aversive blue light information from C4da neurons to MDNs to elicit backward locomotion, whereas aversive information f rom BO converges on MDNs through AMB-independent pathways. We also found that, unlike in adult flies, MDNs are dispensable for the dead end-evoked backward locomotion in larvae. Our findings thus reveal the neural circuits by which two distinct blue light-sensing pathways converge on the command-lik e neurons to evoke robust backward locomotion, and suggest that distinct but partially redu...
Source: PLoS Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Source Type: research