A Hard-Wired Glutamatergic Circuit Pools and Relays UV Signals to Mediate Spectral Preference in Drosophila
Open accessAbstract
Many visual animals have innate preferences for particular wavelengths of light, which can be modified by learning. Drosophila's preference for UV over visible light requires UV-sensing R7 photoreceptors and specific wide-field amacrine neurons called Dm8. Here we identify three types of medulla projection neurons downstream of R7 and Dm8 and show that selectively inactivating one of them (Tm5c) abolishes UV preference. Using a modified GRASP method to probe synaptic connections at the single-cell level, we reveal that each Dm8 neuron forms multiple synaptic contacts with Tm5c in the center of Dm8's dendritic field but sparse connections in the periphery. By single-cell transcript profiling and RNAi-mediated knockdown, we determine that Tm5c uses the kainate receptor Clumsy to receive excitatory glutamate input from Dm8. We conclude that R7s→Dm8→Tm5c form a hard-wired glutamatergic circuit that mediates UV preference by pooling ∼16 R7 signals for transfer to the lobula, a higher visual center. Video abstract
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Tm5c is a columnar type with more than 10% of its inputs coming from VCNs.
“Tm5c is a columnar type (necessary for the preference of Drosophila for UV over visible light64), with more than 10% of its inputs coming from VCNs.”
From Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain (2024) · cites this paper as [64]
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References 57 · Cited by 110
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- Authors
- Karuppudurai, T., Lin, T.-Y., Ting, C.-Y., Pursley, R., Melnattur, K. V., Diao, F., White, B. H., Macpherson, L. J., Gallio, M., Pohida, T., & Lee, C.-H.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, Chi-Hon
- ORCID
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-02
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 603-615
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3920195
- OpenAlex
- W2053249122
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 5.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (1ZIA-MH-002800-07, ZIAMH002800)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS076774, RC1NS069014)
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (ZIAHD008776, Z01-HD008776, Z01HD008776)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- Drosophila, R7 photoreceptors, glutamatergic circuits, synaptic connectivity, lobula, GRASP
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Brain Mapping, Drosophila, Gene Expression Regulation, Nerve Net, Optometry, Ultraviolet Rays, Visual Pathways, Receptors, Glutamate, Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate, Drosophila Proteins, Animals, Genetically Modified, RNA Interference, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Color Vision, Light Signal Transduction
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