Professor Barry Dickson
Professorial Research Fellow
Queensland Brain Institute
+61 7 334 66328
Professor Barry Dickson: Locomotor Circuits in Drosophila
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.
Journal Articles
Chen, Chenghao, Agrawal, Sweta, Mark, Brandon, Mamiya, Akira, Sustar, Anne, Phelps, Jasper S., Lee, Wei-Chung Allen, Dickson, Barry J., Card, Gwyneth M. and Tuthill, John C. (2021). Functional architecture of neural circuits for leg proprioception in Drosophila. Current Biology, 31 (23), 5163-5175.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.035
Sterne, Gabriella R., Otsuna, Hideo, Dickson, Barry J. and Scott, Kristin (2021). Classification and genetic targeting of cell types in the primary taste and premotor center of the adult Drosophila brain. eLife, 10 e71679. doi: 10.7554/elife.71679
Feng, Kai, Sen, Rajyashree, Minegishi, Ryo, Dübbert, Michael, Bockemühl, Till, Büschges, Ansgar and Dickson, Barry J. (2020). Distributed control of motor circuits for backward walking in Drosophila. Nature Communications, 11 (1) 6166, 6166. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19936-x
Wang, Kaiyu, Wang, Fei, Forknall, Nora, Yang, Tansy, Patrick, Christopher, Parekh, Ruchi and Dickson, Barry J. (2020). Neural circuit mechanisms of sexual receptivity in Drosophila females. Nature, 589 (7843), 577-581. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2972-7
McKellar, Claire E., Siwanowicz, Igor, Dickson, Barry J. and Simpson, Julie H. (2020). Controlling motor neurons of every muscle for fly proboscis reaching. eLife, 9 e54978, 1-34. doi: 10.7554/elife.54978
Wang, Fei, Wang, Kaiyu, Forknall, Nora, Patrick, Christopher, Yang, Tansy, Parekh, Ruchi, Bock, Davi and Dickson, Barry J. (2020). Neural circuitry linking mating and egg laying in Drosophila females. Nature, 579 (7797), 101-105. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2055-9
Wang, Fei, Wang, Kaiyu, Forknall, Nora, Parekh, Ruchi and Dickson, Barry J. (2020). Circuit and behavioral mechanisms of sexual rejection by Drosophila females. Current Biology, 30 (19), 3749-3760.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.083
Sen, Rajyashree, Wang, Kaiyu and Dickson, Barry J. (2019). TwoLumps ascending neurons mediate touch-evoked reversal of walking direction in Drosophila. Current Biology, 29 (24), 4337-4344.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.004
Ding, Yun, Lillvis, Joshua L., Cande, Jessica, Berman, Gordon J., Arthur, Benjamin J., Long, Xi, Xu, Min, Dickson, Barry J. and Stern, David L. (2019). Neural evolution of context-dependent fly song. Current Biology, 29 (7), 1089-1099.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.019
McKellar, Claire E., Lillvis, Joshua L., Bath, Daniel E., Fitzgerald, James E., Cannon, John G., Simpson, Julie H. and Dickson, Barry J. (2019). Threshold-based ordering of sequential actions during Drosophila courtship. Current Biology, 29 (3), 426-434.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.12.019
Ribeiro, Inês M. A., Drews, Michael, Bahl, Armin, Machacek, Christian, Borst, Alexander and Dickson, Barry J. (2018). Visual projection neurons mediating directed courtship in Drosophila. Cell, 174 (3), 607-621.e18. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.020
Clemens, Jan, Girardin, Cyrille C, Coen, Philip, Guan, Xiao-Juan, Dickson, Barry J. and Murthy, Mala (2018). Connecting Neural Codes with Behavior in the Auditory System of Drosophila. Neuron, 97 (2), 475-475. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2017.12.033
Zhao, Xiaoliang, Lenek, Daniela, Dag, Ugur, Dickson, Barry J. and Keleman, Krystyna (2018). Persistent activity in a recurrent circuit underlies courtship memory in Drosophila. eLife, 7 e31425. doi: 10.7554/eLife.31425
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
Dickson, Benjamin J., Gatie, Mohamed I., Spice, Danielle M. and Kelly, Gregory M. (2017). NOX1 and NOX4 are required for the differentiation of mouse F9 cells into extraembryonic endoderm. PLoS One, 12 (2), e0170812. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170812
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, 512 (1), 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
Yu, Jai Y, Kanai, Makoto I, Demir, Ebru, Jefferis, Gregory S X E and Dickson, Barry J (2010). Cellular organization of the neural circuit that drives Drosophila courtship behavior. Current biology : CB, 20 (18), 1602-14. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.025
Dickson, Barry J and Zou, Yimin (2010). Navigating intermediate targets: the nervous system midline. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology, 2 (8), a002055. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a002055
Dickson, Barry J (2008). Wired for sex: the neurobiology of Drosophila mating decisions. Science (New York, N.Y.), 322 (5903), 904-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1159276
Yu, Jai Y and Dickson, Barry J (2008). Neuroscience: hidden female talent. Nature, 453 (7191), 41-2. doi: 10.1038/453041a
Dickson, Barry J and Moser, Edvard I (2007). Neurobiology of behaviour. Current opinion in neurobiology, 17 (6), 672-4. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2008.02.001
Kvitsiani, Duda and Dickson, Barry J (2006). Shared neural circuitry for female and male sexual behaviours in Drosophila. Current biology : CB, 16 (10), R355-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.04.025
Yu, Jai Y and Dickson, Barry J (2006). Sexual behaviour: do a few dead neurons make the difference?. Current biology : CB, 16 (1), R23-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2005.12.009
Couto, Africa, Alenius, Mattias and Dickson, Barry J (2005). Molecular, anatomical, and functional organization of the Drosophila olfactory system. Current biology : CB, 15 (17), 1535-47. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2005.07.034
Demir, Ebru and Dickson, Barry J (2005). fruitless splicing specifies male courtship behavior in Drosophila. Cell, 121 (5), 785-94. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.04.027
Holt, Christine E and Dickson, Barry J (2005). Sugar codes for axons?. Neuron, 46 (2), 169-72. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.03.021
Keleman, Krystyna, Ribeiro, Carlos and Dickson, Barry J (2005). Comm function in commissural axon guidance: cell-autonomous sorting of Robo in vivo. Nature neuroscience, 8 (2), 156-63. doi: 10.1038/nn1388
Lundström, Annika, Gallio, Marco, Englund, Camilla, Steneberg, Pär, Hemphälä, Johanna, Aspenström, Pontus, Keleman, Krystyna, Falileeva, Ludmilla, Dickson, Barry J. and Samakovlis, Christos (2004). Vilse, a conserved Rac/Cdc42 GAP mediating Robo repulsion in tracheal cells and axons. Genes and Development, 18 (17), 2161-71. doi: 10.1101/gad.310204
Schnorrer, Frank and Dickson, Barry J (2004). Axon guidance: morphogens show the way. Current biology : CB, 14 (1), R19-21. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2003.12.016
Dickson, Barry J (2002). Molecular mechanisms of axon guidance. Science (New York, N.Y.), 298 (5600), 1959-64. doi: 10.1126/science.1072165
Dickson, Barry J and Senti, Kirsten-André (2002). Axon guidance: growth cones make an unexpected turn. Current biology : CB, 12 (6), R218-20. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(02)00755-8
Dickson, Barry J and Keleman, Krystyna (2002). Netrins. Current biology : CB, 12 (5), R154-5. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(02)00728-5
Dickson, B. J. (2000). Reverse gear for Drosophila. Nature, 405 (6789), 896-7. doi: 10.1038/35016186
Dickson, B. J. (1998). Photoreceptor development: breaking down the barriers. Current Biology, 8 (3), R90-R92. doi: 10.1016/s0960-9822(98)70054-5
Conference Paper
Minegishi, Ryo, Feng, Kai and Dickson, Barry (2019). Cellular level analysis of the locomotor neural circuits in Drosophila melanogaster. Living Machines, Nara, Japan, 9-12 July 2019. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-24741-6_32