Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Synaptic connectome of a neurosecretory network in the Drosophila brain

The paper characterizes the synaptic connectome of neurosecretory cells in Drosophila, revealing their regulatory roles in physiology and behavior through input and output pathways.

NeuroGraphBench: Interacting with Drosophila Connectomes at Scale for Exploring the Functional Logic of Neural Circuits

The paper introduces NeuroGraphBench, a tool for interactively exploring Drosophila connectomes to model neural circuit function.

Hunger reconfigures a reward learning circuit into a memory competent mode

This paper shows how hunger reconfigures a reward circuit in Drosophila to support memory formation by switching dopamine neuron activity modes.

Autocrine feedback maintains homeostatic neuropeptide expression in a peptidergichub neuron

The paper identifies an autocrine feedback mechanism in C. elegans AVK neurons that regulates neuropeptide expression and secretion through FLP-1 and DMSR-7 interactions.

Neuron types and distribution of a Drosophila driver line collection

The paper annotates 6,368 neurons across 1,772 driver lines in Drosophila using electron microscopy data and manual scoring, estimating the fraction of the central nervous system labeled by the collection.

The chemosensory system of the clonal raider ant larva

This study characterizes the chemosensory system of clonal raider ant larvae, identifying odorant and ionotropic receptor neurons and their projections in the central nervous system.

Neuronal sex identity shapes social buffering of defensive freezing behaviour in fruit flies

This study shows male fruit flies exhibit stronger social buffering of freezing responses to threats than females, with neuronal sex identity as the underlying cause.

Starvation transforms signal encoding in C. elegans thermoresponsive neurons and suppresses heat avoidance via bidirectional glutamatergic and peptidergic signaling

Neuropeptide NLP-40 and Cognate G- Protein Coupled Receptor AEX-2 Regulate Behavioral Responses During Anoxia in Caenorhabditis elegans

This study identifies NLP-40 and AEX-2 as regulators of escape behaviors during anoxia in C. elegans, showing their role in modulating locomotor activity and survival.

Social feedback structures stay/switch decision-making in Drosophila

This study investigates how Drosophila males decide to stay or switch behaviors in response to competing social and environmental cues using a closed-loop paradigm and neural imaging.

The Effective Visual Acuity of Butterflies in Flight

This study quantifies how gaze stabilisation limits motion blur in freely flying Monarch butterflies, showing that thoracic oscillations broaden the effective photoreceptor acceptance angle, degrading spatial acuity.

Dietary magnesium supplement enhances memory through Hippo signaling

This study shows dietary magnesium enhances memory by modulating Hippo signaling in Drosophila neurons, specifically in β Kenyon Cells.

Sensory receptor expansion and neural accommodation in butterfly color vision

The paper investigates how butterflies expand their color vision by adding a second R7 photoreceptor and how the brain accommodates this change through developmental mechanisms.

A shared circuit architecture for multiscale signal recognition in crickets

The paper investigates whether a shared neural circuit can recognize multiple temporal scales in cricket communication signals, finding that long-timescale selectivity begins before short-timescale processing.

Scanning and active sampling behaviours emerge from conserved insect neural circuits

This study shows that scanning behaviors in desert ants emerge from conserved neural circuits without a specialized module, using a biologically grounded model.

Evolution of compound eye cell types shapes visual behaviors across Heliconius butterflies

This study identifies genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying visual system evolution in Heliconius butterflies by analyzing compound eye cell types across species.

Glycosaminoglycan presentation-dependent regulation of glial responses by Orion during Drosophila neuronal pruning

This study shows that Orion's presentation via glycosaminoglycans regulates distinct glial responses during Drosophila neuronal pruning.

Restoration of (nor)adrenergic-like Ca2+ signalling counteracts age-related motor decline

The paper shows that restoring noradrenergic-like Ca2+ signaling in aged Drosophila improves motor function and lifespan by enhancing metabolic responses.

Comparison of sodium azide- and cooling-based immobilization methods for Caenorhabditis elegans chemotaxis assays

The paper compares sodium azide and cooling methods for immobilizing C. elegans in chemotaxis assays and finds both methods yield similar behavioral responses.

Environmental modulation of social isolation-induced sleep loss in Drosophila

This study examines how environmental factors during and after social isolation affect sleep loss in Drosophila, finding that sleep loss persists but is influenced by environmental context.

Drosophila glutathione S-transferase S1 exacerbates phenotypes of the gain-of-function voltage-gated sodium channel mutant paraShu through a hemocyte-mediated mechanism

This study shows that GstS1 in Drosophila exacerbates hyperexcitability in paraShu mutants through hemocyte-mediated neuroimmune interactions.

Cryo-EM structures of insect IRs reveal the structural adaptations of a glutamate receptor ancestor for environmental sensing

The paper reports cryo-EM structures of insect IR complexes to understand their evolutionary adaptation from glutamate receptors for environmental sensing.

Cold sensing by a glutamate receptor drives avoidance behavior in Drosophila larvae

Modular presynaptic assemblages scale to postsynaptic partner number

The paper investigates how projection neurons in Drosophila adjust their presynaptic bouton number to match Kenyon cell population size during development.

Sex-biased expression of enteroendocrine cell-derived hormones contributes to higher fat storage in Drosophila females

This study identifies sex-biased expression of enteroendocrine hormones in Drosophila and shows that gut-specific knock-down of AstC or Tk reduces fat storage only in females.

Class-wide sequence, structural, and docking-profile diversity of insect odorant receptors and structural specialization of Orco

The paper analyzes insect odorant receptor (OR) diversity across 115 species using sequence, structure, and docking profiles, finding associations with diet and habitat and identifying a conserved Orco domain.

Distinct associative learning abilities for colour and odour in the flower-feeding Drosophila elegans and the fruit-feeding Drosophila melanogaster

This study compares odour and colour associative learning in two Drosophila species, finding D. elegans has better colour learning but worse odour learning than D. melanogaster.

Wing mechanosensory modulation of optic flow-sensitive descending neurons in butterflies

This study shows that wing mechanosensation modulates optic-flow-sensitive descending neurons in butterflies by altering excitability and timing, not visual feature encoding.

Predator-like auditory stimuli elicit escape climb in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

This study shows that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes perform an escape climb in response to low-frequency sounds and dragonfly audio, suggesting auditory detection of aerial predators.

Individual dopaminergic neurons induce unique, yet overlapping combinations of behavioural modulations including safety learning, memory retrieval and acute locomotion

The paper shows that individual dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila larvae can induce unique yet overlapping behavioural effects including memory formation, locomotion modulation, and safety learning.