FOR 2705:  Dissection of a Brain Circuit: Structure, Plasticity and Behavioral Function of the Drosophila mushroom body

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Biology
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 365082554

A fundamental scientific problem of our time is to understand how brains integrate present sensory stimuli, past experience, and future behavioral options. This research unit wants to understand how adaptive behavior is organized through the properties of single neurons, their synapses, and the neural circuits these neurons are part of. Previous research has treated these three levels largely separate from each other. A combination of new tools such as optogenetics, cell-specific transgene expression, connectomics and modeling now paves the way to understand brains as integrating systems for the control of behavior. For such an endeavor, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is particularly suitable. It combines a numerically simpler brain, behavioral richness, and experimental accessibility. This research unit focuses on the mushroom body as a genetically and experimentally tractable case of a higher brain region controlling adaptive behavior. The mushroom body is an evolutionary ancient third-order brain structure, comprising ~ 2500 neurons. It integrates input from multiple sensory modalities with modulation through biogenic amines and signaling peptides to allow for transient and lasting behavioral adaptations. Interestingly, the mushroom body features structural, functional, and developmental similarity with mammalian brain structures as diverse as cortex, cerebellum and hippocampus. Thus, the mushroom body is an ancient, leanly designed, functionally dense, multi-purpose organizer of adaptive behavior. As such, it can be seen as a paradigmatic case of how a brain operates. We use an integrative approach to brain function that is possible only within the framework of a research unit involving a team of laboratories with different expertise. The research unit is composed of nine laboratories located at five Universities, one Institute of the Helmholtz Association, one Leibniz-Institute and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Research projects cover fundamental aspects that, as a whole, lead to a more comprehensive model of brain function. Therefore, the research unit provides a unique chance to synergistically merge our expertise toward understanding how a central brain structure is formed during development, functions at a physiological and molecular level, and contributes to selecting and controlling behavior. In order to abstract the operating principles of such a brain structure, the research unit embraces theoretical and computational approaches.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Israel

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Fiala, André )
• Establishment of the circuit of the mushroom body calyx during development (Applicant Tavosanis, Gaia )
• From molecular computation to adaptive behavior: Across level modeling of memory computation in the mushroom bodies, (Applicant Nawrot, Martin Paul )
• Postsynaptic receptor plasticity and transsynaptic communication in storage of memory components in the mushroom bodies (Applicant Owald, David )
• Presynaptic plasticity in the control of mushroom body memory formation (Applicant Sigrist, Stephan J. )
• The role of gap junctions during mushroom body development and remodeling (Applicant Schuldiner, Oren )
• Timing-dependent valence reversal: DANs, shock, and beyond (Applicant Gerber, Bertram )
• TP3 - Infection and behavior: The role of the mushroom body, AMPs and octopamine in brain-body communication (Applicant Grunwald Kadow, Ilona )
• Visualizing subcellular modules for learning and memory: Axonal bouton-like specializations in Kenyon cells as functional units (Applicant Fiala, André )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. André Fiala