Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

The paper quantifies neurons and glia in the Drosophila larval CNS, revealing sexual dimorphism with more neurons in females and topological differences.

This study compares in vivo electroporation and viral transduction for inducing EGFP expression in specific honeybee brain cell types, showing variable and homogeneous expression patterns respectively.

This study shows that bumblebee gustatory receptor neurons encode sugar value through distinct temporal firing patterns, revealing specialized mechanisms for detecting nutritional and toxic sugars.

The paper reconstructs gustatory projections in Drosophila melanogaster brains to show taste modality segregation and synaptic connectivity patterns.

This study shows Drosophila renal stem cells remodel adult Malpighian tubules after injury, resulting in a more stone-resistant but less efficient structure.

This paper develops optogenetic tools to stimulate Drosophila's olfactory system and uses calcium imaging to study neural activity and connectivity.

This study examines how odor information is transformed and represented in higher-order neurons of the Drosophila lateral horn, finding that these neurons encode odor valence and identity through specific response patterns.

This paper shows that female mosquitoes enter a persistent behavioral state after detecting human sensory cues, enabling sustained predation.

The paper shows that local axonal translation of CaMKII mRNA, mediated by Mub and a 3UTR element, is essential for asymmetric CaMKII distribution and associative memory in Drosophila neurons.

This paper develops a Drosophila model of axonal degeneration, showing that light exposure causes progressive degeneration without apoptosis, and that synaptic loss precedes degeneration, with postsynaptic signaling required to maintain axonal structure.

This study investigates how female hawkmoths distinguish between crucial and background plant odors, finding that their olfactory system uniquely codes for larval host plants even when these odors are subtle.

The paper shows that leg mechanosensory activity provides a clock signal and speed context to visual circuits for flexible course control during walking in Drosophila.

This paper shows that food deprivation in C. elegans reduces repellent sensitivity, mediated by intestinal transcription factors and insulin signaling to neurons, leading to riskier behaviors.

The paper shows that vitamin B12 from bacteria modulates chemoreceptor gene expression in C. elegans via the MEF-2 transcription factor, affecting sensory responses to diet.

This paper develops an ex vivo Drosophila brain model that recapitulates pairing-dependent plasticity in the mushroom body, showing it is input-specific and requires CaMKII and sleep.

This paper identifies pigmentation genes in Rhodnius prolixus that can serve as visible markers for genome editing and transgenesis to control Chagas disease vectors.

The paper identifies neuropeptidergic pathways in C. elegans that mediate developmental decisions between reproductive growth and diapause based on pheromone cues.

The paper investigates the evolutionary loss of olfactory processing speed in flightless insects and finds that flight loss is associated with degraded olfactory acuity and speed.

This study identifies Drosulfakinin (DSK) and its receptor CCKLR-17D3 as key regulators of female sexual receptivity in Drosophila, showing their role through neuronal activity and circuit connections.

The paper identifies dopamine and PDF receptors as regulators of AKH cell activity in Drosophila, showing their roles in metabolic stress responses and lifespan under starvation.

The paper investigates how dopaminergic neurons influence courtship motivational states in male Drosophila, showing that blocking these neurons reduces male-male courtship behavior.

The paper quantifies the relationship between synaptic contact counts and synaptic surface area in Drosophila, showing counts can approximate synaptic strength for modeling neural circuits.

This study investigates novelty detection in honey bees by analyzing behavioral and neuronal responses to familiar and novel odors in the antennal lobes.

AGES provides a non-lethal, cost-effective method to temporally control GAL4 activity in Drosophila by using auxin to degrade GAL80, enabling precise gene expression regulation.

This study shows that the astrocytic GABA transporter GAT modulates sleep in Drosophila by affecting GABAergic signaling in circadian neurons.

The paper shows that associative learning induces compartmentalized, bidirectional plasticity of acetylcholine release in Drosophila mushroom body axons, with valence-dependent effects and distinct molecular mechanisms.

The paper develops a modular vector for Drosophila that enables inducible and interconvertible overexpression transgenes using three binary systems.

The paper models memory dynamics in Drosophila mushroom bodies using a dopaminergic plasticity rule and circuit structure to explain memory acquisition, transfer, and exploration-exploitation trade-offs.

The paper maps chemosensory co-receptor expression in Drosophila olfactory neurons, revealing widespread co-expression patterns among Orco, Ir25a, Ir8a, and Ir76b.