Hub-organized parallel circuits of central circadian pacemaker neurons for visual photoentrainment in Drosophila

Meng-Tong Li, Li-Hui Cao, Na Xiao, Min Tang, Bowen Deng, Tian Yang, Taishi Yoshii and Dong-Gen Luo ()
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Meng-Tong Li: Peking University
Li-Hui Cao: Peking University
Na Xiao: Peking University
Min Tang: Peking University
Bowen Deng: Peking University
Tian Yang: Peking University
Taishi Yoshii: Okayama University
Dong-Gen Luo: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Circadian rhythms are orchestrated by a master clock that emerges from a network of circadian pacemaker neurons. The master clock is synchronized to external light/dark cycles through photoentrainment, but the circuit mechanisms underlying visual photoentrainment remain largely unknown. Here, we report that Drosophila has eye-mediated photoentrainment via a parallel pacemaker neuron organization. Patch-clamp recordings of central circadian pacemaker neurons reveal that light excites most of them independently of one another. We also show that light-responding pacemaker neurons send their dendrites to a neuropil called accessary medulla (aMe), where they make monosynaptic connections with Hofbauer–Buchner eyelet photoreceptors and interneurons that transmit compound-eye signals. Laser ablation of aMe and eye removal both abolish light responses of circadian pacemaker neurons, revealing aMe as a hub to channel eye inputs to central circadian clock. Taken together, we demonstrate that the central clock receives eye inputs via hub-organized parallel circuits in Drosophila.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06506-5

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