About
The Dickson laboratory investigates the neural circuits that control walking in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The goal is to understand how local circuits in the nerve cord produce rhythmic motor patterns, how these patterns are co-ordinated across each leg joint and all six legs, and how descending signals from the brain modulate these operations to alter the fly's direction, speed and gait.
The lab started operation at QBI in August 2015. The immediate task was to set up the equipment needed to measure and manipulate neuronal activity in the live nerve cord. Genetically encoded activity reporters and modulators, together with fast volumetric imaging, make it possible to simultaneously monitor the activity of large populations of neurons while acutely manipulating the output of one specific cell type. With this approach, it should be possible to systematically explore the operating principles of the locomotor circuits in the fly's central nervous system.
This system was almost fully functional by year's end, so that the group can now focus on three complementary goals: (1) further expanding the collection of genetic tools that can be used to target activity modulators and reporters to specific cell types, (2) investigating how activity patterns in the nerve cord respond to a descending signal that triggers backward walking, and (3) searching for a complementary descending pathway that initiates forward walking.
Research Areas
- Drosophila (fruit fly) locomotion behaviour
- Neural circuits involving walking
- Genetic dissection of cell types in ventral nerve cord
- Functional connectivity mapping by multiphoton imaging
Sen, Rajyashree, Wu, Ming, Branson, Kristin, Robie, Alice, Rubin, Gerald M. and Dickson, Barry J. (2017)Moonwalker descending neurons mediate visually evoked retreat in Drosophila. Current Biology, 27 5: 766-771. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.008
Swoboda, N., Moosburner, J., Bruckner, S., Yu, J. Y., Dickson, B. J. and Buhler, K. (2017)Visualization and quantification for interactive analysis of neural connectivity in Drosophila. Computer Graphics Forum, 36 1: 160-171. doi:10.1111/cgf.12792
Dulac, Catherine and Dickson, Barry J. (2016)Editorial overview: neurobiology of sex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 38 A1-A3. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2016.06.001
Trapp, Martin, Schulze, Florian, Novikov, Alexey A., Tirian, Laszlo, Dickson, Barry J. and Buhler, Kayja (2016)Adaptive and background-aware GAL4 expression enhancement of co-registered confocal microscopy images. Neuroinformatics, 14 2: 221-233. doi:10.1007/s12021-015-9289-y
Clemens, Jan, Girardin, Cyrille C., Coen, Philip, Guan, Xiao-Juan, Dickson, Barry J. and Murthy, Mala (2015)Connecting neural codes with behavior in the auditory system of Drosophila. Neuron, 87 6: 1332-1343. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.08.014
Ammer, Georg, Leonhardt, Aljoscha, Bahl, Armin, Dickson, Barry J. and Borst, Alexander (2015)Functional specialization of neural input elements to the Drosophila ON motion detector. Current Biology, 25 17: 2247-2253. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.014
Chin, An-Lun, Lin, Chih-Yung, Fu, Tsai-Feng, Dickson, Barry J. and Chiang, Ann-Shyn (2014)Diversity and wiring variability of visual local neurons in the Drosophila medulla M6 stratum. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 522 17: 3795-3816. doi:10.1002/cne.23622
Feng, Kai, Palfreyman, Mark T., Häsemeyer, Martin, Talsma, Aaron and Dickson, Barry J. (2014)Ascending SAG neurons control sexual receptivity of Drosophila females. Neuron, 83 1: 135-148. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.017
Bath, Daniel E., Stowers, John R., Hoermann, Dorothea, Poehlmann, Andreas, Dickson, Barry J. and Straw, Andrew D. (2014)FlyMAD: Rapid thermogenetic control of neuronal activity in freely walking Drosophila. Nature Methods, 11 7: 756-762. doi:10.1038/nmeth.2973
Bussell, Jennifer J., Yapici, Nilay, Zhang, Stephen X., Dickson, Barry J. and Vosshall, Leslie B. (2014)Abdominal-B neurons control Drosophila virgin female receptivity. Current Biology, 24 14: 1584-1595. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.06.011
Bidaye, Salil S., Machacek, Christian, Wu, Yang and Dickson, Barry J. (2014)Neuronal control of Drosophila walking direction. Science, 344 6179: 97-101. doi:10.1126/science.1249964
Meier, Matthias, Serbe, Etienne, Maisak, Matthew S., Haag, Juergen, Dickson, Barry J. and Borst, Alexander (2014)Neural circuit components of the drosophila off motion vision pathway. Current Biology, 24 4: 385-392. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.01.006
von Philipsborn, Anne C., Joerchel, Sabrina, Tirian, Laszlo, Demir, Ebru, Morita, Tomoko, Stern, David L. and Dickson, Barry J. (2014)Cellular and behavioral functions of fruitless isoforms in Drosophila courtship. Current Biology, 24 3: 242-251. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.12.015
Kvon, Evgeny Z., Kazmar, Tomas, Stampfel, Gerald, Yanez-Cuna, J. Omar, Pagani, Michaela, Schernhuber, Katharina, Dickson, Barry J. and Stark, Alexander (2014)Genome-scale functional characterization of Drosophila developmental enhancers in vivo. Nature, 5121: 91-95. doi:10.1038/nature13395
Lin, Hui-Hao, Chu, Li-An, Fu, Tsai-Feng, Dickson, Barry J. and Chiang, Ann-Shyn (2013)Parallel neural pathways mediate CO2 avoidance responses in Drosophila. Science, 340 6138: 1338-1341. doi:10.1126/science.1236693
Lin, Chih-Yung, Chuang, Chao-Chun, Hua, Tzu-En, Chen, Chun-Chao, Dickson, Barry J., Greenspan, Ralph J. and Chiang, Ann-Shyn (2013)A comprehensive wiring diagram of the protocerebral bridge for visual information processing in the Drosophila brain. Cell Reports, 3 5: 1739-1753. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2013.04.022
Maisak, Matthew S., Haag, Juergen, Ammer, Georg, Serbe, Etienne, Meier, Matthias, Leonhardt, Aljoscha, Schilling, Tabea, Bahl, Armin, Rubin, Gerald M., Nern, Aljoscha, Dickson, Barry J., Reiff, Dierk F., Hopp, Elisabeth and Borst, Alexander (2013)A directional tuning map of Drosophila elementary motion detectors. Nature, 500 7461: 212-216. doi:10.1038/nature12320
Kruettner, Sebastian, Stepien, Barbara, Noordermeer, Jasprina N., Mommaas, Mieke A., Mechtler, Karl, Dickson, Barry J. and Keleman, Krystyna (2012)Drosophila CPEB Orb2A mediates memory independent of its RNA-binding domain. Neuron, 76 2: 383-395. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.08.028
Keleman, Krystyna, Vrontou, Eleftheria, Kruettner, Sebastian, Yu, Jai Y., Kurtovic-Kozaric, Amina and Dickson, Barry J. (2012)Dopamine neurons modulate pheromone responses in Drosophila courtship learning. Nature, 489 7414: 145-149. doi:10.1038/nature11345
Toda, Hirofumi, Zhao, Xiaoliang and Dickson, Barry J. (2012)The Drosophila female aphrodisiac pheromone activates ppk23+ sensory neurons to elicit male courtship behavior. Cell Reports, 1 6: 599-607. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2012.05.007
Kvon, Evgeny Z., Stampfel, Gerald, Yanez-Cuna, J. Omar, Dickson, Barry J. and Stark, Alexander (2012)HOT regions function as patterned developmental enhancers and have a distinct cis-regulatory signature. Genes and Development, 26 9: 908-913. doi:10.1101/gad.188052.112
Lai, Jason Sih-Yu, Lo, Shih-Jie, Dickson, Barry J. and Chiang, Ann-Shyn (2012)Auditory circuit in the Drosophila brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 7: 2607-2612. doi:10.1073/pnas.1117307109
Pappu, Kartik S., Morey, Marta, Nern, Aljoscha, Spitzweck, Bettina, Dickson, Barry J. and Zipursky, S. L. (2011)Robo-3-mediated repulsive interactions guide R8 axons during Drosophila visual system development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 18: 7571-7576. doi:10.1073/pnas.1103419108
Hadjieconomou, Dafni, Rotkopf, Shay, Alexandre, Cyrille, Bell, Donald M., Dickson, Barry J. and Salecker, Iris (2011)Flybow: Genetic multicolor cell labeling for neural circuit analysis in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature Methods, 8 3: 260-266. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1567
von Philipsborn, Anne C., Liu, Tianxiao, Yu, Jai Y., Masser, Christopher, Bidaye, Salil S. and Dickson, Barry J. (2011)Neuronal control of Drosophila courtship song. Neuron, 69 3: 509-522. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.01.011
Prof Barry Dickson or Dr Kai Feng
Project: Neural Circuits, Genetics and Behaviour
As animals walk, run, or hop, motor circuits in the spinal cord convert descending “command” signals from the brain into the coordinated movements of many different leg muscles. How are command signals from the brain deconvolved into the appropriate patterns of motor neuron activity? We aim to answer this question for Drosophila by studying the functional organization of leg motor circuits in the ventral nerve cord, the fly’s analogue of the spinal cord. In Drosophila, individual neuronal cell types can be reproducibly identified and manipulated using genetic reagents that have been developed to target specific descending neurons, interneurons, or motor neurons. We have also established imaging pipeline to identify novel neurons that are behaviourally relevant and probe how they talk to each other. A range of projects involving optogenetics, two-photon imaging, machine learning assisted behavioural analysis and circuit modelling are currently open to honours students with a background in any area of molecular biology or experimental or theoretical neuroscience.
Project 1: Neural Mechanisms of Drosophila locomotion
As animals walk, run, or hop, motor circuits in the spinal cord convert descending “command” signals from the brain into the coordinated movements of many different leg muscles. How are command signals from the brain deconvolved into the appropriate patterns motor neuron activity?
We aim to answer this question for Drosophila by studying the functional organization of leg motor circuits in the ventral nerve cord, the fly’s analogue of the spinal cord. In Drosophila, individual neuronal cell types can be reproducibly identified and manipulated using genetic reagents that have been developed to target specific descending neurons, interneurons, or motor neurons.
In your thesis project, you will learn a range of methods including genetics, multiphoton imaging, optogenetics and quantitative behavioural analysis, and use these methods to elucidate the structure and function of the motor circuits controlled by a specific class of descending neuron. This may be, for example, a descending neuron that, when activated, causes the fly to walk backwards (see Bidaye et al, Science 6179:97), or one that elicits turning. Understanding the circuit mechanisms behind those simple actions will shed light on general computational principles of neural networks, and may even help us to design smarter robot.