Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Selective life-long suppression of an odor processing channel in response to critical period experience

The paper shows that exposure to ethyl butyrate during a critical period in Drosophila leads to long-term suppression of Or42a OSN odor responses and selective glial pruning of their axon terminals.

Sex-specific metabolic regulation by the Drosophila RNA-binding protein Nab2

This study identifies a female-specific role for Nab2 in regulating insulin signaling and fat storage through neuronal control of dilp2 and dilp5 mRNA levels in Drosophila.

Elements of Olfactory Intelligence in Drosophila

This paper characterizes the functional logic of Drosophila's early olfactory system, identifying how it processes odorant information into a time and rank-based representation for classification.

Lateralized dopaminergic neuron activity encodes goal-directed turning

This study shows that dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila encode steering signals in both allocentric and egocentric coordinates during goal-directed navigation.

Pheromone circuits and transcriptional cascades modulating transcriptional and chromatin states in the Drosophila central brain with social experience

This study investigates how social experience alters transcriptional and chromatin states in Drosophila brains through pheromone circuits and transcription factors.

Airborne Sound Detection in Manduca sexta Caterpillars

This study shows that Manduca sexta caterpillars detect airborne sound directly, not through substrate vibrations, by measuring behavioral responses to pure-tone stimuli at 150 Hz and 2000 Hz.

Convergent evolutionary loss of chemosensory and blood-feeding pathways in non-blood-feeding mosquitoes

The paper identifies convergent gene losses and expression changes associated with blood-feeding loss in non-blood-feeding mosquitoes.

Distinct Molecular Mechanisms Regulate Feeding State-Dependent CO2 Chemotaxis Plasticity During Different Life Stages in Caenorhabditis elegans

Neuropeptide T2A-GAL4 knock-ins illustrate practical considerations for interpreting GAL4 reporter patterns in Drosophila

The paper characterizes neuropeptide T2A-GAL4 knock-in lines in Drosophila, showing that adult GAL4 reporter patterns may not reflect ongoing activity and can have developmental effects.

Uncertainty-Guided Decision-Making in Bumble Bees

This study shows bumble bees make decisions based on uncertainty, adjusting choices to avoid errors and seeking information when uncertain, suggesting ancient neural mechanisms for uncertainty monitoring.

Excessive activation of the RAS/MAPK pathway triggers adult-onset motor axonal degeneration

This study identifies excessive RAS/MAPK pathway activation as a cause of adult-onset motor axonal degeneration in Drosophila, showing that inhibiting the pathway can rescue neurodegenerative phenotypes.

Active sensing movements by antennae enhance neural processing and plasticity for odour processing in the CNS in the honey bee Apis mellifera

This study shows that allowing honey bees to move their antennae during odor learning enhances neural processing and plasticity in the antennal lobes.

Dorsal ocelli set the luminance-dependent operating state of the bumblebee visual system

This study shows that bumblebee dorsal ocelli regulate the luminance-dependent scaling of visual system activity, affecting orientation and flight speed under different light conditions.

Cellular source and circuit context organize functional specificity in the Drosophila NPF system

Four connectome-defined Drosophila NPF cell types sit in separate circuits with distinct, sometimes opposing functions; population-wide NPF knockdown hides these, and activity manipulation can differ from peptide loss.

No detectable effect of P2 neurons on female post-mating changes in sleep and feeding in Drosophila melanogaster

This study investigates the role of P2 neurons in post-mating behavioral changes in Drosophila melanogaster and finds they are not responsible for altered sleep and food consumption after mating.

Insulin receptor signaling in gustatory cells suppresses sugar taste sensitivity and feeding in Drosophila

This study shows that insulin receptor signaling in sweet gustatory receptor neurons of Drosophila modulates sugar taste sensitivity and feeding behavior based on metabolic state.

Sticking the landing: leg mechanosensory feedback coordinates the transition from flight to landing

This study investigates how mechanosensory feedback from legs coordinates the transition from flight to landing in fruit flies, showing that leg contact triggers specific behavioral and neural responses.

Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving Drosophila

Seven high-speed cameras, a hybrid 2D/3D network and body-model inverse kinematics track 50 keypoints on freely moving flies; height and speed peak together at all running speeds.

Antennal Lobe Dynamics And The Generation Of Diverse Response Patterns To Mechanosensory Stimulation

This study develops a biophysical model of the antennal lobe to show how internal dynamics generate diverse mechanosensory response patterns and how these patterns change with stimulus intensity.

QINT, a novel simplified QF/QUAS expression system with integrated temporal expression control

The paper introduces QINT, a temperature-controlled gene expression system that enables temporal regulation of gene expression in Drosophila and other organisms.

Distinct mechanisms mediate dopamine-octopamine opponency in an insect model of olfaction

The paper investigates how dopamine and octopamine opposingly affect odor-driven neural activity and behavior in an insect olfactory circuit.

Pathogen-associated odor experience induces inherited olfactory avoidance in a parasitoid wasp

The paper shows that exposure to pathogen-associated odors in parasitoid wasps induces inherited olfactory avoidance in their offspring.

Temporal niche partitioning through olfactory cell type evolution

This study shows how Drosophila sechellia evolved a specialized olfactory receptor to detect ripe noni fruit, enabling temporal niche partitioning by reducing competition and parasitization.

Assessment of adult structural plasticity in Drosophila neurons

This study assesses adult structural plasticity in Drosophila neurons by examining remodeling processes and introducing a tool to measure complexity without observer bias.

Sexually Dimorphic Visual Processing in the Yellow-Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti

This study investigates sexually dimorphic visual processing in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, finding that females pursue moving targets while males suppress approach behavior despite similar biomechanical capabilities.

Neuroligin 3 highlights sexually dimorphic circuitry in Drosophila social spacing

This study identifies sex-specific neural circuits involving Nlg3, MB, and fruP1 neurons that regulate social spacing in Drosophila.

Structured Connectivity Across Multiple Drosophila Mushroom Bodies

The paper identifies structured connectivity patterns in Drosophila mushroom bodies across multiple connectomes, showing reproducible pathways that prioritize food-related sensory information.

A dynamical circuit model for C. elegans chemotaxis with emergent sharp turns

This paper presents a dynamical circuit model of C. elegans chemotaxis that captures sharp turning behavior through emergent dynamics.

A canonical excitatory-inhibitory motif embedded in the connectome underlies rhythmic locomotion in Drosophila larvae

The paper identifies an excitatory-inhibitory neural motif in Drosophila larvae that generates rhythmic locomotion through connectomic and simulation analyses.

Region-specific mechanosensation modulates Drosophila postural control behaviour

This study identifies region-specific mechanosensory processes in Drosophila larvae that mediate self-righting behavior, showing Hox gene regulation is critical for this function.