Lateral axonal modulation is required for stimulus-specific olfactory conditioning in Drosophila.

Effective and stimulus-specific learning is essential for animals' survival. Two major mechanisms are known to aid stimulus specificity of associative learning. One is accurate stimulus-specific representations in neurons.

Glial ER and GAP junction mediated Ca waves are crucial to maintain normal brain excitability.

Astrocytes play key roles in regulating multiple aspects of neuronal function from invertebrates to humans and display Ca fluctuations that are heterogeneously distributed throughout different cellular microdomains. Changes in Ca dynamics represent a key mechanism for how astrocytes modulate neuronal activity. An unresolved issue is the origin and contribution of specific glial Ca signaling components at distinct astrocytic domains to neuronal physiology and brain function.

Glial Casignaling links endocytosis to K buffering around neuronal somas to regulate excitability.

Glial-neuronal signaling at synapses is widely studied, but how glia interact with neuronal somas to regulate their activity is unclear. cortex glia are restricted to brain regions devoid of synapses, providing an opportunity to characterize interactions with neuronal somas. Mutations in the cortex glial elevate basal Ca, predisposing animals to seizure-like behavior.

Characterization of developmental and molecular factors underlying release heterogeneity at synapses.

Neurons communicate through neurotransmitter release at specialized synaptic regions known as active zones (AZs). Using biosensors to visualize single synaptic vesicle fusion events at neuromuscular junctions, we analyzed the developmental and molecular determinants of release probability () for a defined connection with ~300 AZs. was heterogeneous but represented a stable feature of each AZ.

Ectopic Expression of Mouse Melanopsin in Photoreceptors Reveals Fast Response Kinetics and Persistent Dark Excitation.

The intrinsically photosensitive M1 retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC) initiate non-image-forming light-dependent activities and express the melanopsin (OPN4) photopigment. Several features of ipRGC photosensitivity are characteristic of fly photoreceptors. However, the light response kinetics of ipRGC is much slower due to unknown reasons.

Functional cooperation between the IP3 receptor and phospholipase C secures the high sensitivity to light of Drosophila photoreceptors in vivo.

Drosophila phototransduction is a model system for the ubiquitous phosphoinositide signaling. In complete darkness, spontaneous unitary current events (dark bumps) are produced by spontaneous single Gqα activation, while single-photon responses (quantum bumps) arise from synchronous activation of several Gqα molecules. We have recently shown that most of the spontaneous single Gqα activations do not produce dark bumps, because of a critical phospholipase Cβ (PLCβ) activity level required for bump generation.

A new genetic model for calcium induced autophagy and ER-stress in Drosophila photoreceptor cells.

Cytoplasmic Ca2+ overload is known to trigger autophagy and ER-stress. Furthermore, ER-stress and autophagy are commonly associated with degenerative pathologies, but their role in disease progression is still a matter of debate, in part, owing to limitations of existing animal model systems. The Drosophila eye is a widely used model system for studying neurodegenerative pathologies.

Compartmentalization and Ca2+ buffering are essential for prevention of light-induced retinal degeneration.

Fly photoreceptors are polarized cells, each of which has an extended interface between its cell body and the light-signaling compartment, the rhabdomere. Upon intense illumination, rhabdomeric calcium concentration reaches millimolar levels that would be toxic if Ca(2+) diffusion between the rhabdomere and cell body was not robustly attenuated. Yet, it is not clear how such effective attenuation is obtained.

Incidence, risk factors, and outcome of cytomegalovirus infection and disease in patients receiving prophylaxis with oral valganciclovir or intravenous ganciclovir after umbilical cord blood transplantation.

There is no information on the efficacy and safety of anticytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis with intravenous ganciclovir or oral valganciclovir after unrelated cord-blood transplantation (UCBT). This issue was addressed in 151 adults (117 CMV-seropositive) undergoing UCBT at a single institution. The first 38 CMV-seropositive recipients were assigned to receive prophylactic ganciclovir, and the next 79 were given valganciclovir after engraftment.