Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Department of Biological Chemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2020 Dec;65:8-13. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2020.04.005. Epub 2020 Jun 25.
It has long been appreciated that activity sculpts the formation of neuronal circuits in the mammalian brain. By contrast, in Drosophila it was generally thought that genetically hardwired mechanisms of development, mediated by cell recognition molecules, are sufficient to specify the connectome-the complex and stereotyped pattern of connections between neurons. Here, we consider recent findings that activity during development also contributes to circuit assembly in the fly. These observations suggest that activity is a fundamental aspect of brain development in general. They also highlight the opportunities to learn about the role of this phenomenon through the extensive Drosophila toolkit for examining circuit development, structure, and function.
长期以来，人们一直认为活动塑造了哺乳动物大脑中神经元回路的形成。相比之下，在果蝇中，人们普遍认为，由细胞识别分子介导的遗传上固定的发育机制足以指定连接组——神经元之间复杂且刻板的连接模式。在这里，我们考虑了最近的发现，即发育过程中的活动也有助于果蝇中回路的组装。这些观察结果表明，活动是大脑发育的一个基本方面。它们还突出了通过广泛的果蝇工具包来研究电路发育、结构和功能，从而了解这种现象的作用的机会。
