Work

Columnar cholinergic neurotransmission onto T5 cells of Drosophila

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Several nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) are expressed in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster. However, the contribution of different AChRs to visual information processing remains poorly understood. T5 cells are the primary motion-sensing neurons in the OFF pathway and receive input from four different columnar cholinergic neurons, Tm1, Tm2, Tm4, and Tm9. We reasoned that different AChRs in T5 postsynaptic sites might contribute to direction selectivity, a central feature of motion detection. We show that the nicotinic nAChRα1, nAChRα3, nAChRα4, nAChRα5, nAChRα7, and nAChβ1 subunits localize on T5 dendrites. By targeting synaptic markers specifically to each cholinergic input neuron, we find a prevalence of the nAChRα5 in Tm1, Tm2, and Tm4-to-T5 synapses and of nAChRα7 in Tm9-to-T5 synapses. Knockdown of nAChRα4, nAChRα5, nAChRα7, or mAChR-B individually in T5 cells alters the optomotor response and reduces T5 directional selectivity. Our findings indicate the contribution of a consortium of postsynaptic receptors to input visual processing and, thus, to the computation of motion direction in T5 cells.

Source: Current Biology

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.004

Authors: Eleni Samara, Tabea Schilling, Inês M.A. Ribeiro, Juergen Haag, Maria-Bianca Leonte, Alexander Borst

Institutions: Max Planck Society, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Institut für Medizinische Psychologie

Language: English

Topic: Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $7,030

Funders: BRAIN Initiative, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München