Abstract
To navigate through the environment, animals rely on visual feedback to control their movements relative to their surroundings. In dipteran flies, visual feedback is provided by the wide-field motion-sensitive neurons in the visual system called lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs). Understanding the role of LPTCs in fly behaviors can address many fundamental questions on how sensory circuits guide behaviors. The blowfly was estimated to have ~ 60 LPTCs, but only a few have been identified in Drosophila. We conducted a Gal4 driver screen and identified five LPTC subtypes in Drosophila, based on their morphological characteristics: LPTCs have large arborizations in the lobula plate and project to the central brain. We compared their morphologies to the blowfly LPTCs and named them after the most similar blowfly cells: CH, H1, H2, FD1 and FD3, and V1. We further characterized their pre- and post-synaptic organizations, as well as their neurotransmitter profiles. These anatomical features largely agree with the anatomy and function of their likely blowfly counterparts. Nevertheless, several anatomical details indicate the Drosophila LPTCs may have more complex functions. Our characterization of these five LPTCs in Drosophila will facilitate further functional studies to understand their roles in the visual circuits that instruct fly behaviors.
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Abbreviations
- BTF:
-
Back to front
- c.l.:
-
Contralateral
- CH:
-
Centrifugal horizontal
- ChAT:
-
Choline acetyltransferase
- dCH:
-
Dorsal centrifugal horizontal
- DMK:
-
Denmark
- dvGlut:
-
Drosophila vesicular glutamate transporter
- FD:
-
Figure detection
- FTB:
-
Front to back
- HS:
-
Horizontal system
- i.p.:
-
Ipsilateral
- IPS:
-
Inferior posterior slope
- LOP:
-
Lobula plate
- LPTCs:
-
Lobula plate tangential cells
- MCFO:
-
MultiColor FlpOut
- PLP:
-
Posterior lateral protocerebrum
- PS:
-
Posterior slope
- SyteGFP:
-
Synaptotagmin eGFP
- vCH:
-
Ventral centrifugal horizontal
- VS:
-
Vertical system
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Acknowledgements
We thank Erin Barnhart for the insightful discussions, Maximilien Courgeon for helping with the construction of the Gad1 hemi driver line, Mark Frye for the VT045663-Gal4 line for H1 neuron, and Matthias Landgraf for the dvGlut and ChAT fly lines. This work was supported by NIH Grant R01 EY13012 to C.D.
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Wei, H., Kyung, H.Y., Kim, P.J. et al. The diversity of lobula plate tangential cells (LPTCs) in the Drosophila motion vision system. J Comp Physiol A 206, 139–148 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01380-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01380-y