Publications by authors named "Thomas F Mathejczyk"

Active locomotion plays an important role in the life of many animals, permitting them to explore the environment, find vital resources, and escape predators. Most insect species rely on a combination of visual cues such as celestial bodies, landmarks, or linearly polarized light to navigate or orient themselves in their surroundings. In nature, linearly polarized light can arise either from atmospheric scattering or from reflections off shiny non-metallic surfaces like water.

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Rab GTPases are molecular switches that regulate membrane trafficking in all cells. Neurons have particular demands on membrane trafficking and express numerous Rab GTPases of unknown function. Here, we report the generation and characterization of molecularly defined null mutants for all 26 genes in .

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Background: The quantitative study of behavioral responses to visual stimuli provides crucial information about the computations executed by neural circuits. Insects have long served as powerful model systems, either when walking on air suspended balls (spherical treadmill), or flying while glued to a needle (virtual flight arena).

New Method: Here we present detailed instructions for 3D-printing and assembly of arenas optimized for visually guided navigation, including codes for presenting both celestial and panorama cues.

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Many navigating insects include the celestial polarization pattern as an additional visual cue to orient their travels. Spontaneous orientation responses of both walking and flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to linearly polarized light have previously been demonstrated. Using newly designed modular flight arenas consisting entirely of off-the-shelf parts and 3D-printed components we present individual flying flies with a slow and continuous rotational change in the incident angle of linear polarization.

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In the fly optic lobe, ∼800 highly stereotypical columnar microcircuits are arranged retinotopically to process visual information. Differences in cellular composition and synaptic connectivity within functionally specialized columns remain largely unknown. Here, we describe the cellular and synaptic architecture in medulla columns located downstream of photoreceptors in the dorsal rim area (DRA), where linearly polarized skylight is detected for guiding orientation responses.

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