A screen for constituents of motor control and decision making in Drosophila reveals visual distance-estimation neurons.

ABSTRACT: Climbing over chasms larger than step size is vital to fruit flies, since foraging and mating are achieved while walking. Flies avoid futile climbing attempts by processing parallax-motion vision to estimate gap width. To identify neuronal substrates of climbing control, we screened a large collection of fly lines with temporarily inactivated neuronal populations in a novel high-throughput assay described here. The observed climbing phenotypes were classified; lines in each group are reported. Selected lines were further analysed by high-resolution video cinematography. One striking class of flies attempts to climb chasms of unsurmountable width; expression analysis guided us to C2 optic-lobe interneurons. Inactivation of C2 or the closely related C3 neurons with highly specific intersecti

SUBMITTER: Triphan T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4891706 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature