Abstract

We will take a genetic approach to dissect the neuronal circuitry that underlies behavioral aversion of UV, using the Drosophila egg-laying site as our model system.
We aim to identify and characterize both the critical sensory neurons and their post-synaptic targets that govern UV aversion. In addition, we will also assess the roles of neuro-modulatory neurons in adjusting the strength of UV aversion via modulating the communication between the specific sensory and central neurons we identified.

Public Health Relevance

The ability to detect, assess, and respond properly to aversive stimuli is essential for animal survival and reproductive success;failure to sense significant threats causes bodily harm while unchecked sensitivity to mild aversive stimuli may incur opportunity loss as well as stress-induced mental illness. Given that the channel, neuropeptide, and neuro-modulatory systems we are investigating in our proposal all appear to be conserved across species, our findings will likely shed light on how stress is processed in humans.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01GM100027-03
Application #
8710271
Study Section
Neurodifferentiation, Plasticity, and Regeneration Study Section (NDPR)
Program Officer
Sesma, Michael A
Project Start
2012-09-24
Project End
2017-07-31
Budget Start
2014-08-01
Budget End
2015-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$294,191
Indirect Cost
$104,191

  Institution

Name
Duke University
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
044387793
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705

  Publications

Kaneko, Takuya; Macara, Ann Marie; Li, Ruonan et al. (2017) Serotonergic Modulation Enables Pathway-Specific Plasticity in a Developing Sensory Circuit in Drosophila. Neuron 95:623-638.e4
Hu, Chun; Petersen, Meike; Hoyer, Nina et al. (2017) Sensory integration and neuromodulatory feedback facilitate Drosophila mechanonociceptive behavior. Nat Neurosci 20:1085-1095
Kaneko, Takuya; Macara, Ann Marie; Li, Ruonan et al. (2017) Serotonergic Modulation Enables Pathway-Specific Plasticity in a Developing Sensory Circuit in Drosophila. Neuron 95:722
Guntur, Ananya R; Gou, Bin; Gu, Pengyu et al. (2017) H2O2-Sensitive Isoforms of Drosophila melanogaster TRPA1 Act in Bitter-Sensing Gustatory Neurons to Promote Avoidance of UV During Egg-Laying. Genetics 205:749-759
Gou, Bin; Zhu, Edward; He, Ruo et al. (2016) High Throughput Assay to Examine Egg-Laying Preferences of Individual Drosophila melanogaster. J Vis Exp :e53716
Guntur, Ananya R; Gu, Pengyu; Takle, Kendra et al. (2015) Drosophila TRPA1 isoforms detect UV light via photochemical production of H2O2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:E5753-61
Stern, Ulrich; He, Ruo; Yang, Chung-Hui (2015) Analyzing animal behavior via classifying each video frame using convolutional neural networks. Sci Rep 5:14351
Yang, Chung-Hui; He, Ruo; Stern, Ulrich (2015) Behavioral and circuit basis of sucrose rejection by Drosophila females in a simple decision-making task. J Neurosci 35:1396-410
Stern, Ulrich; Zhu, Edward Y; He, Ruo et al. (2015) Long-duration animal tracking in difficult lighting conditions. Sci Rep 5:10432
Liu, Ying; Yang, Chung-hui (2014) Unveiling the secrets to her heart. Neuron 83:3-5

Showing the most recent 10 out of 12 publications