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Jonathan Carranza

Jonathan Carranza

Major: 

Biology

Mentor(s): 

Durafshan Sakeena Syed

Faculty Sponsor(s): 

Julie Simpson

Faculty Sponsor's Department(s): 

Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology

Project Title: 

Mapping the Inhibitory Circuits that Control Motor Sequence in Drosophila melanogaster

Project Description: 

When flies are covered in dust they groom themselves from anterior to posterior, starting at their head. This grooming sequence is known but how inhibitory neurons participate in this cascade from sensing to responding in grooming behavior control is still a mystery. Here we used optogenetic screening to identify the 13B inhibitory neurons as candidates for grooming sequence control. 13B neurons are GABAergic that suppress the activity of the nervous system. Activating these neurons in flies affects anterior leg rubbing behavior. To understand how 13B neurons affect the aspects of grooming sequence, we are investigating the connectivity of specific 13B neurons using the serial section electron microscopy dataset of the central nervous system of Drosophila. We use two softwares: the Collaborative Annotation Toolkit for Massive Amounts of Image Data (CATMAID), and Neuroglancer, a computer-generated auto-segmentation dataset that allows 3-D visualization of the neurons of interest. Here we identified different subtypes of 13B neurons based on the anatomical characterization. Next, we are mapping their pre-and post-synaptic connections. Specifically, we are looking for where 13B neurons connect with sensory and motor neurons. By understanding the circuitry of these inhibitory neurons we can better understand pattern formation and the leg movements of flies. This study will give an insight into how the nervous system selects and executes motor actions.