Project description:Mitochondria are dynamic organelles and undergo fission-fusion in response to various environemtal cues. But the roles of these two very different mitochondrial forms – predominantly spherical and tubular - are not well-characterized in neurons of animals and especially in aging neurons. This is important because neurons are long-lived and mitochondrial dynamics is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. We used here an efficient cell type-specific CRISPR approach to knockout key fission-fusion genes and disrupt mitochondrial dynamics within the inessential clock neurons of Drosophila. In order to understand the cellular effects of these perturbations, transcriptomic profiling was performed from young and old clock neurons with and without disrupted mitochondrial dynamics.