美国华盛顿大学John C. Tuthill等研究人员合作完成雌性果蝇腹神经索的连接组学重建。这一研究成果于2024年6月26日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。

研究人员应用自动化工具来分割神经元并识别黑腹果蝇成年雌性腹神经索（VNC）电子显微镜数据集中的突触。研究人员发现，果蝇VNC包含大约4500万个突触和14600个神经元细胞体。为了解释连接组的输出，研究人员利用遗传驱动系和X射线全息纳米层析技术绘制了腿部和翅膀运动神经元的肌肉靶标图谱。

通过该运动神经元图谱，研究人员确定了起飞时协调腿部和翅膀运动的神经回路。研究人员提供了VNC回路重建、运动神经元图谱以及用于编程和交互式访问的工具，可作为支持神经系统如何控制行为的实验和理论研究的资源。

据悉，要深入了解大脑是如何控制行为的，就需要绘制神经回路及其控制肌肉的图谱。

附：英文原文

Title: Connectomic reconstruction of a female Drosophila ventral nerve cord

Author: Azevedo, Anthony, Lesser, Ellen, Phelps, Jasper S., Mark, Brandon, Elabbady, Leila, Kuroda, Sumiya, Sustar, Anne, Moussa, Anthony, Khandelwal, Avinash, Dallmann, Chris J., Agrawal, Sweta, Lee, Su-Yee J., Pratt, Brandon, Cook, Andrew, Skutt-Kakaria, Kyobi, Gerhard, Stephan, Lu, Ran, Kemnitz, Nico, Lee, Kisuk, Halageri, Akhilesh, Castro, Manuel, Ih, Dodam, Gager, Jay, Tammam, Marwan, Dorkenwald, Sven, Collman, Forrest, Schneider-Mizell, Casey, Brittain, Derrick, Jordan, Chris S., Dickinson, Michael, Pacureanu, Alexandra, Seung, H. Sebastian, Macrina, Thomas, Lee, Wei-Chung Allen, Tuthill, John C.

Issue&Volume: 2024-06-26

Abstract: A deep understanding of how the brain controls behaviour requires mapping neural circuits down to the muscles that they control. Here, we apply automated tools to segment neurons and identify synapses in an electron microscopy dataset of an adult female Drosophila melanogaster ventral nerve cord (VNC)1, which functions like the vertebrate spinal cord to sense and control the body. We find that the fly VNC contains roughly 45 million synapses and 14,600 neuronal cell bodies. To interpret the output of the connectome, we mapped the muscle targets of leg and wing motor neurons using genetic driver lines2 and X-ray holographic nanotomography3. With this motor neuron atlas, we identified neural circuits that coordinate leg and wing movements during take-off. We provide the reconstruction of VNC circuits, the motor neuron atlas and tools for programmatic and interactive access as resources to support experimental and theoretical studies of how the nervous system controls behaviour.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07389-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07389-x