Snapshots in Neuroscience: Fruit Fly Brain

These images have been selected to showcase the art that neuroscience research can create.

As described by the authors: “The cacophony voltage-gated calcium channel serves as the primary conduit for the calcium that triggers neurotransmitter release at countless synapses across the fruit fly (Drosophila) nervous system. To support this role at different synapse types, alternate splicing confers different biophysical properties upon cacophony. However, conventional techniques that might discriminate splice isoforms, such as antibodies, toxins, and pharmacological agents, are poorly suited for identifying splice isoforms across multiple neurons in a living nervous system.

“This image demonstrates the transgenic expression of a bichromatic fluorescent exon reporter in most neurons of the fly brain. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) fluorescence was particularly bright relative to red fluorescent protein (TagRFP) in the α, β, and γ lobes of the mushroom body (MB), indicating a bias towards the inclusion of exon 11 at the expense of exon 10. Differences were also evident between neurons of the optic lobes.

“The data were captured after removal of the brain from the head capsule using confocal microscopy. Images were taken with a 60X, 1.20 NA, plan apochromat objective in a single Z-series of 7 steps axially separated by 2 μm, with 1024² format and subsequently collapsed as an average to a single image.”

This image represents a collapsed confocal Z-stack from the Drosophila adult brain. A bichromatic fluorescent exon reporter expressing GFP (green) and TagRFP (red) labels most neurons. The brightness of GFP compared to TagRFP in the mushroom body reflects biases in the splicing of cacophony. Image credit: Robert X. Hernandez.

Read the full article:

Bichromatic Exon-Reporters Reveal Voltage-Gated Ca2+-Channel Splice–Isoform Diversity across Drosophila Neurons In Vivo
Touhid Feghhi, Roberto X. Hernandez, Olena Mahneva, Carlos D. Oliva, and Gregory T. Macleod