The wiring diagram of a glomerular olfactory system

The sense of smell enables animals to react to long-distance cues according to learned and innate valences. Here, we have mapped with electron microscopy the complete wiring diagram of the Drosophila larval antennal lobe, an olfactory neuropil similar to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. We found a can...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Matthew E Berck, Avinash Khandelwal, Lindsey Claus, Luis Hernandez-Nunez, Guangwei Si, Christopher J Tabone, Feng Li, James W Truman, Rick D Fetter, Matthieu Louis, Aravinthan DT Samuel, Albert Cardona
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2016-05-01
Series:eLife
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Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/14859
Description
Summary:The sense of smell enables animals to react to long-distance cues according to learned and innate valences. Here, we have mapped with electron microscopy the complete wiring diagram of the Drosophila larval antennal lobe, an olfactory neuropil similar to the vertebrate olfactory bulb. We found a canonical circuit with uniglomerular projection neurons (uPNs) relaying gain-controlled ORN activity to the mushroom body and the lateral horn. A second, parallel circuit with multiglomerular projection neurons (mPNs) and hierarchically connected local neurons (LNs) selectively integrates multiple ORN signals already at the first synapse. LN-LN synaptic connections putatively implement a bistable gain control mechanism that either computes odor saliency through panglomerular inhibition, or allows some glomeruli to respond to faint aversive odors in the presence of strong appetitive odors. This complete wiring diagram will support experimental and theoretical studies towards bridging the gap between circuits and behavior.
ISSN:2050-084X