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Phelps JS, Hildebrand DGC, Graham BJ, Kuan AT, Thomas LA, Nguyen TM, Buhmann J, Azevedo AW, Sustar A, Agrawal S, Liu M, Shanny BL, Funke J, Tuthill JC, Lee WCA. Reconstruction of motor control circuits in adult Drosophila using automated transmission electron microscopy. Cell 2021; 184:759-774.e18. [PMID: 33400916 PMCID: PMC8312698 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.12.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
To investigate circuit mechanisms underlying locomotor behavior, we used serial-section electron microscopy (EM) to acquire a synapse-resolution dataset containing the ventral nerve cord (VNC) of an adult female Drosophila melanogaster. To generate this dataset, we developed GridTape, a technology that combines automated serial-section collection with automated high-throughput transmission EM. Using this dataset, we studied neuronal networks that control leg and wing movements by reconstructing all 507 motor neurons that control the limbs. We show that a specific class of leg sensory neurons synapses directly onto motor neurons with the largest-caliber axons on both sides of the body, representing a unique pathway for fast limb control. We provide open access to the dataset and reconstructions registered to a standard atlas to permit matching of cells between EM and light microscopy data. We also provide GridTape instrumentation designs and software to make large-scale EM more accessible and affordable to the scientific community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasper S Phelps
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Division of Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - David Grant Colburn Hildebrand
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Program in Neuroscience, Division of Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Brett J Graham
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Aaron T Kuan
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Logan A Thomas
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Tri M Nguyen
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Julia Buhmann
- HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - Anthony W Azevedo
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Anne Sustar
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Sweta Agrawal
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Mingguan Liu
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Brendan L Shanny
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Jan Funke
- HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA
| | - John C Tuthill
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Wei-Chung Allen Lee
- F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
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Hildebrand DGC, Cicconet M, Torres RM, Choi W, Quan TM, Moon J, Wetzel AW, Scott Champion A, Graham BJ, Randlett O, Plummer GS, Portugues R, Bianco IH, Saalfeld S, Baden AD, Lillaney K, Burns R, Vogelstein JT, Schier AF, Lee WCA, Jeong WK, Lichtman JW, Engert F. Whole-brain serial-section electron microscopy in larval zebrafish. Nature 2017; 545:345-349. [PMID: 28489821 DOI: 10.1038/nature22356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 176] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2016] [Accepted: 04/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
High-resolution serial-section electron microscopy (ssEM) makes it possible to investigate the dense meshwork of axons, dendrites, and synapses that form neuronal circuits. However, the imaging scale required to comprehensively reconstruct these structures is more than ten orders of magnitude smaller than the spatial extents occupied by networks of interconnected neurons, some of which span nearly the entire brain. Difficulties in generating and handling data for large volumes at nanoscale resolution have thus restricted vertebrate studies to fragments of circuits. These efforts were recently transformed by advances in computing, sample handling, and imaging techniques, but high-resolution examination of entire brains remains a challenge. Here, we present ssEM data for the complete brain of a larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) at 5.5 days post-fertilization. Our approach utilizes multiple rounds of targeted imaging at different scales to reduce acquisition time and data management requirements. The resulting dataset can be analysed to reconstruct neuronal processes, permitting us to survey all myelinated axons (the projectome). These reconstructions enable precise investigations of neuronal morphology, which reveal remarkable bilateral symmetry in myelinated reticulospinal and lateral line afferent axons. We further set the stage for whole-brain structure-function comparisons by co-registering functional reference atlases and in vivo two-photon fluorescence microscopy data from the same specimen. All obtained images and reconstructions are provided as an open-access resource.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Grant Colburn Hildebrand
- Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Division of Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Image and Data Analysis Core, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Marcelo Cicconet
- Image and Data Analysis Core, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Russel Miguel Torres
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Woohyuk Choi
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea
| | - Tran Minh Quan
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea
| | - Jungmin Moon
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea
| | - Arthur Willis Wetzel
- Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | | | - Brett Jesse Graham
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Owen Randlett
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - George Scott Plummer
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ruben Portugues
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Isaac Henry Bianco
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Stephan Saalfeld
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia, USA
| | | | - Kunal Lillaney
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Randal Burns
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Joshua Tzvi Vogelstein
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Computational Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Alexander Franz Schier
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Wei-Chung Allen Lee
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Won-Ki Jeong
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea
| | - Jeff William Lichtman
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Florian Engert
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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