Neuron to Egg Laying | Neuronal Control of Fine Movement Components of Egg Laying in Fruit Fly

Original description

[a short summary to be written shortly]Insect reproduction has a large impact in human well-being through the dissemination of disease and crop failure. Here, we propose to study insect egg laying using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. We will focus on the ventral nerve cord and its role in executing egg laying behaviour commands. We will take advantage of lines previously generated in the laboratory that label small groups of neurons in the ventral nerve cord to establish how different neurons contribute to egg laying motor elements and explore how they communicate with each other and other identified egg laying neuronal elements to coordinate the execution of the different egg laying steps. For this we will pursue the following aims: Aim1- Development of automated tracking of each element of egg laying behaviour. This will allow a precise, quantitative and fast description of behavioural phenotypes; Aim2- Probe the contribution of different motor-controlling neuronal populations to different elements of egg laying behaviour.Activation phenotypes will be recorded, classified and clustered for each ventral nerve cord line; Aim3 - Establish the connectivity of different neuronal populations.The power of Drosophila genetics will be used determine through anatomical and functional means the connectivity between different sets of neurons, including descending neurons from the brain and other local ventral nerve cord neurons. We will also determine how octopamine modulates the functional connectivity between the neurons.

With the results of this project, we expect to produce important insights into the mechanisms of control and execution of egg laying behaviour.

Status

SIGNED

Url

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101130875

Call topic

HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-04-01

Update Date

12-03-2024