Activity timing is related to the dynamics of each neuron’s dendritic arbors, suggesting arbor shape and targeting endow each proprioceptor with a specific role in monitoring body wall deformation. These activities could conceivably provide a continuum of position encoding during locomotion.
We imaged a set of proprioceptive neurons with diverse dendrite morphologies and territories, revealing that each neuron subtype responds in sequence during crawling. In collaboration with Elizabeth Hillman’s lab, we used a high-speed volumetric microscopy technique, Swept Confocally Aligned Planar Excitation (SCAPE) microscopy, to simultaneously image the dendrite deformation dynamics and sensory activity of body wall neurons in crawling Drosophila larvae. First, I examined the relationship between dendritic fields and sensory activity in the proprioceptive neurons of the body wall. In this thesis, I use the Drosophila larval peripheral nervous system (PNS) as a model for studying these questions, as these neurons are very amenable to genetic manipulation and in vivo imaging. We have only recently begun to understand how diverse dendritic arbors are built and how the morphology and territory of these arbors support diverse neural functions. 2020 Theses Doctoral Development and Function of Proprioceptive Dendrite Territories in Drosophila LarvaeĪ neuron’s function depends critically on the shape, size, and territory of its dendritic field.
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