Automated quantification of synaptic boutons reveals their 3D distribution in the honey bee mushroom body.

ABSTRACT: Synaptic boutons are highly plastic structures undergoing experience-dependent changes in their number, volume, and shape. Their plasticity has been intensively studied in the insect mushroom bodies by manually counting the number of boutons in small regions of interest and extrapolating this number to the volume of the mushroom body neuropil. Here we extend this analysis to the synaptic bouton distribution within a larger subregion of the mushroom body olfactory neuropil of honey bees (Apis mellifera). This required the development of an automated method combining two-photon imaging with advanced image post-processing and multiple threshold segmentation. The method was first validated in subregions of the mushroom body olfactory and visual neuropils. Further analyses in the olfactory neur

SUBMITTER: Cabirol A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6920473 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature