Connectomic reconstruction of a female Drosophila ventral nerve cord

Anthony Azevedo, Ellen Lesser, Jasper S. Phelps, Brandon Mark, Leila Elabbady, Sumiya Kuroda, Anne Sustar, Anthony Moussa, Avinash Khandelwal, Chris J. Dallmann, Sweta Agrawal, Su-Yee J. Lee, Brandon Pratt, Andrew Cook, Kyobi Skutt-Kakaria, Stephan Gerhard, Ran Lu, Nico Kemnitz, Kisuk Lee, Akhilesh Halageri, Manuel Castro, Dodam Ih, Jay Gager, Marwan Tammam, Sven Dorkenwald, Forrest Collman, Casey Schneider-Mizell, Derrick Brittain, Chris S. Jordan, Michael Dickinson, Alexandra Pacureanu, H. Sebastian Seung, Thomas Macrina, Wei-Chung Allen Lee () and John C. Tuthill ()
Additional contact information
Anthony Azevedo: University of Washington
Ellen Lesser: University of Washington
Jasper S. Phelps: Harvard Medical School
Brandon Mark: University of Washington
Leila Elabbady: University of Washington
Sumiya Kuroda: Harvard Medical School
Anne Sustar: University of Washington
Anthony Moussa: University of Washington
Avinash Khandelwal: University of Washington
Chris J. Dallmann: University of Washington
Sweta Agrawal: University of Washington
Su-Yee J. Lee: University of Washington
Brandon Pratt: University of Washington
Andrew Cook: University of Washington
Kyobi Skutt-Kakaria: California Institute of Technology
Stephan Gerhard: Harvard Medical School
Ran Lu: Zetta AI
Nico Kemnitz: Zetta AI
Kisuk Lee: Zetta AI
Akhilesh Halageri: Zetta AI
Manuel Castro: Zetta AI
Dodam Ih: Zetta AI
Jay Gager: Zetta AI
Marwan Tammam: Zetta AI
Sven Dorkenwald: Princeton University
Forrest Collman: Allen Institute for Brain Science
Casey Schneider-Mizell: Allen Institute for Brain Science
Derrick Brittain: Allen Institute for Brain Science
Chris S. Jordan: Princeton University
Michael Dickinson: California Institute of Technology
Alexandra Pacureanu: The European Synchrotron
H. Sebastian Seung: Zetta AI
Thomas Macrina: Zetta AI
Wei-Chung Allen Lee: Harvard Medical School
John C. Tuthill: University of Washington

Nature, 2024, vol. 631, issue 8020, 360-368

Abstract: Abstract A deep understanding of how the brain controls behaviour requires mapping neural circuits down to the muscles that they control. Here, we apply automated tools to segment neurons and identify synapses in an electron microscopy dataset of an adult female Drosophila melanogaster ventral nerve cord (VNC)1, which functions like the vertebrate spinal cord to sense and control the body. We find that the fly VNC contains roughly 45 million synapses and 14,600 neuronal cell bodies. To interpret the output of the connectome, we mapped the muscle targets of leg and wing motor neurons using genetic driver lines2 and X-ray holographic nanotomography3. With this motor neuron atlas, we identified neural circuits that coordinate leg and wing movements during take-off. We provide the reconstruction of VNC circuits, the motor neuron atlas and tools for programmatic and interactive access as resources to support experimental and theoretical studies of how the nervous system controls behaviour.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07389-x

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