The new X-ray/visible microscopy MAXWELL technique for fast three-dimensional nanoimaging with isotropic resolution.

Microscopy by Achromatic X-rays With Emission of Laminar Light (MAXWELL) is a new X-ray/visible technique with attractive characteristics including isotropic resolution in all directions, large-volume imaging and high throughput. An ultrathin, laminar X-ray beam produced by a Wolter type I mirror irradiates the sample stimulating the emission of visible light by scintillating nanoparticles, captured by an optical system. Three-dimensional (3D) images are obtained by scanning the specimen with respect to the laminar beam.

Comprehensive map of visual projection neurons for processing ultraviolet information in the Drosophila brain.

The brain perceives visual information and controls behavior depending on its underlying neural circuits. How UV information is represented and processed in the brain remains poorly understood. In Drosophila melanogaster, UV light is detected by the R7 photoreceptor that projects exclusively into the medulla layer 6 (M ).

Diversity and wiring variability of visual local neurons in the Drosophila medulla M6 stratum.

Local neurons in the vertebrate retina are instrumental in transforming visual inputs to extract contrast, motion, and color information and in shaping bipolar-to-ganglion cell transmission to the brain. In Drosophila, UV vision is represented by R7 inner photoreceptor neurons that project to the medulla M6 stratum, with relatively little known of this downstream substrate. Here, using R7 terminals as references, we generated a 3D volume model of the M6 stratum, which revealed a retinotopic map for UV representations.

Drosophila ORB protein in two mushroom body output neurons is necessary for long-term memory formation.

Memory is initially labile and gradually consolidated over time through new protein synthesis into a long-lasting stable form. Studies of odor-shock associative learning in Drosophila have established the mushroom body (MB) as a key brain structure involved in olfactory long-term memory (LTM) formation. Exactly how early neural activity encoded in thousands of MB neurons is consolidated into protein-synthesis-dependent LTM remains unclear.

A map of olfactory representation in the Drosophila mushroom body.

Neural coding for olfactory sensory stimuli has been mapped near completion in the Drosophila first-order center, but little is known in the higher brain centers. Here, we report that the antenna lobe (AL) spatial map is transformed further in the calyx of the mushroom body (MB), an essential olfactory associated learning center, by stereotypic connections with projection neurons (PNs). We found that Kenyon cell (KC) dendrites are segregated into 17 complementary domains according to their neuroblast clonal origins and birth orders.