Sites of Circadian Clock Neuron Plasticity Mediate Sensory Integration and Entrainment.

Networks of circadian timekeeping in the brain display marked daily changes in neuronal morphology. In Drosophila melanogaster, the striking daily structural remodeling of the dorsal medial termini of the small ventral lateral neurons has long been hypothesized to mediate endogenous circadian timekeeping. To test this model, we have specifically abrogated these sites of daily neuronal remodeling through the reprogramming of neural development and assessed the effects on circadian timekeeping and clock outputs.

A GAL4 driver resource for developmental and behavioral studies on the larval CNS of Drosophila.

We report the larval CNS expression patterns for 6,650 GAL4 lines based on cis-regulatory regions (CRMs) from the Drosophila genome. Adult CNS expression patterns were previously reported for this collection, thereby providing a unique resource for determining the origins of adult cells. An illustrative example reveals the origin of the astrocyte-like glia of the ventral CNS.