ON and OFF pathways in Drosophila motion vision

Maximilian Joesch, Bettina Schnell, Shamprasad Varija Raghu, Dierk F. Reiff and Alexander Borst ()
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Maximilian Joesch: MPI for Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
Bettina Schnell: MPI for Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
Shamprasad Varija Raghu: MPI for Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
Dierk F. Reiff: MPI for Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany
Alexander Borst: MPI for Neurobiology, Am Klopferspitz 18, 82152 Martinsried, Germany

Nature, 2010, vol. 468, issue 7321, 300-304

Abstract: Vertebrates and insects see eye-to-eye Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Ramón y Cajal, the founding father of neuroscience, observed similarities between the vertebrate retina and the insect eye. His conclusions were based purely on anatomy. Now, using state-of-the-art genetics and electrophysiology, Alexander Borst and colleagues confirm the similarity between vertebrate and insect retinal circuitry, this time at the functional level. They have distinguished motion-sensitive neurons responding to abrupt increases in light (ON-neurons), from those specific for light decrements (OFF-neurons), in the fruitfly Drosophila. Clearly, the selection pressure for efficient motion detection through variations in light intensity has generated similar circuitries in these evolutionarily distant species.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09545

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