TH-GAL4 subgroups (Anatomy)
I have been doing crosses in order to establish different lines that will allow me to study the neurons behind the photopreference shift. Here I show the first dissections I did to test some of these lines.
Dopaminergic clusters (Left: posterior, Right: anterior)
My dissections
TH-C’ from the original publication (Top: anterior, Bottom: posterior)
Short update on DA in photopreference
A few months ago I finished my first screen for DA-neuronal populations relevant in the photopreference shift. I tried a small collection of TH-Gal4s with interesting results that you could see here. To validate those results, I am currently searching for other Gal4s labeling the same groups of neurons. Here you can see the outcome of the first experiments for one of those lines.
OA in photopreference (other GAL4s)
Trying to define subsets of neurons related to the photopreference shift, I started to test the different OA and DA drivers available. Here you can see two OA-GAL4s used in Burke et al 2012:
My results:
Individual Choices in Benzer.
The following figure depict the PI for flies tested in a Benzer CC paradigm, and the PI for the subgroups generated at the end of the first test in a re-test. Additionally, I calculated the PI expected for flies in groups 5-4 (green) and 3-0 (yellow) if they would choose the same tubes in the re-test.
Figures for SfN (Individual choices in Benzer and T-maze paradigms)
Since SfN is around the corner, I am preparing the figures for my poster. This year the title is “Do flies in groups make individual choices?”, and contains the work that was done by Isabelle during her Bachelor thesis.
I redesigned the figures, and here are the most important ones.
Amount of flies in T-Maze and how it affects flies’ choices/distribution in tubes:
Subgroups obtained after testing an initial population in the T-Maze:
3h later
24h later
Amount of flies in Benzer’s paradigm and how it affects flies’ choices/distribution in tubes:
Subgroups obtained after testing an initial population in Benzer’s paradigm:
3h later
24h later
All Benzer subgroups (unfinished figure):
CyO flies and photopreference.
As part of the answers to the reviewers for our paper (previous pre-print version here), I decided to test some CyO flies in the T-Maze. Here I present the results for an N of 5 experiments. The CyO balancer that I used was balancing the lethal insertion of a tsh-Gal80 construct. Therefore, as a control I tested the tsh-Gal80/+ siblings of the CyO/+ flies obtained after crossing tsh-Gal80/CyO with WTB.
Sensory input and photopreference (update)
This is an update from my previous post were I tested the wing-clipping effect in several sensory mutants. This is the final graph.
Sensory input and photopreference
in order to test the relevance of different sensory modalities in photopreference and wing-clipping effect, I decided to test some sensory mutants. This is the result of the first experiment.
TbH-LexA: OA in photopreference (update)
The following plot shows the photopreference of two LexA lines presumably labeling TbH neurons. Only wing-clipped flies are shown.
26-09-2016, new experiments added.
TbH QF system
In order to study the role of OA and DA in photopreference I am constantly looking for new drivers that label subpopulations of these groups. I recently found a TbH driver from the QF system, and wanted to know how representative of the TDC2-G4 neurons was. I have established a QUAS-mCherry;TbH-QFs line (Magenta) and crossed it with TDC2-G4;UAS-GFP (Green). In both cases, what is shown is the endogenous expression.
