Manipulation of neural circuits in drosophila larvae

Abstract

Drosophila has proven to be an extraordinarily prolific model organism to study the integrated function of neural circuits. This success largely stems from the development of powerful genetic tools to monitor and to manipulate the activity of identified neurons in the fly nervous system. However, establishing causal relationships between the activity of a given neuron and the expression of a behavior remains challenging both at a technical and at a conceptual level. First, the characterization of behavioral phenotypes still lacks standardization in the field. Here, we illustrate the importance of quantitative analysis of behaviors as complex as sensory navigation (chemotaxis). Second, experimenters are often confronted with the absence of suitable reagents to exclusively label their neurons of interest. A driver line associated with an interesting loss- or gain-of-function phenotype often covers a heterogeneous group of neurons. In the present chapter, we describe how reagents freely available to the fly community can be combined to nail down the relationships between phenotypic traits and the activity of single neurons.