The exit of axons and glial membrane from the developing Drosophila retina requires integrins

Coordinated development of neurons and glia is essential for the establishment of neuronal circuits during embryonic development. In the developing Drosophila visual system, photoreceptor (R cell) axons and wrapping glial (WG) membrane extend from the eye disc through the optic stalk into the optic lobe. Extensive studies have identified a number of genes that control the establishment of R-cell axonal projection pattern in the optic lobe. The molecular mechanisms directing the exit of R-cell axons and WG membrane from the eye disc, however, remain unknown. In this study, we show that integrins are required in R cells for the extension of R-cell axons and WG membrane from the eye disc into the optic stalk. Knockdown of integrins in R cells but not WG caused the stalling of both R-cell axons and WG membrane in the eye disc. Interfering with the function of Rhea (i.e. the Drosophila ortholog of vertebrate talin and a key player of integrin-mediated adhesion), caused an identical stalling phenotype. These results support a key role for integrins on R-cell axons in directing R-cell axons and WG membrane to exit the eye disc.

Anatomy of the Nervous System in Chelifer cancroides (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) with a Distinct Sensory Pathway Associated with the Pedipalps

Many arachnid taxa have evolved unique, highly specialized sensory structures such as antenniform legs in Amblypygi (whip spiders), for instance, or mesosomal pectines in scorpions. Knowledge of the neuroanatomy as well as functional aspects of these sensory organs is rather scarce, especially in comparison to other arthropod clades. In pseudoscorpions, no special sensory structures have been discovered so far. Nevertheless, these animals possess dominant, multifunctional pedipalps, which are good candidates for being the primary sensory appendages. However, only little is known about the anatomy of the nervous system and the projection pattern of pedipalpal afferents in this taxon. By using immunofluorescent labeling of neuronal structures as well as lipophilic dye labeling of pedipalpal pathways, we identified the arcuate body, as well as a comparatively small mushroom body, the latter showing some similarities to that of Solifugae (sun spiders and camel spiders). Furthermore, afferents from the pedipalps terminate in a glomerular and a layered neuropil. Due to the innervation pattern and structural appearance, we conclude that these neuropils are the first integration centers of the chemosensory and mechanosensory afferents. Within Arthropoda, but also other invertebrates or even vertebrates, sensory structures show rather similar neuronal arrangement. Thus, these similarities in the sensory systems of different evolutionary origin have to be interpreted as functional prerequisites of the respective modality.

Identification of Lung Innervating Sensory Neurons and Their Target Specificity

Known as the gas exchange organ, the lung is also critical for responding to the aerosol environment in part through interaction with the nervous system. The diversity and specificity of lung innervating neurons remains poorly understood. Here, we interrogated the cell body location, molecular signature and projection pattern of lung innervating sensory neurons. Retrograde tracing from the lung coupled with whole tissue clearing highlighted neurons primarily in the vagal ganglia. Centrally, they project specifically to the nucleus of the solitary tract in the brainstem. Peripherally, they enter the lung alongside branching airways. Labeling of nociceptor Trpv1+ versus peptidergic Tac1+ vagal neurons showed shared and distinct terminal morphology and targeting to airway smooth muscles, vasculature including lymphatics, and alveoli. Notably, a small population of vagal neurons that are Calb1+ preferentially innervate pulmonary neuroendocrine cells, a demonstrated airway sensor population. This atlas of lung innervating neurons serves as a foundation for understanding their function in lung.

IMPROVING 3D SURFACE MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL DETAILS BY STRUCTURED LIGHT USING HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE

The measurement methods using structured light have the advantage of being fast, accurate, and noncontact with the surface of the object. However, these methods have reached its limitation when measuring mechanical details with high surface gloss, due to the unpredictable reflection of incident rays after reaching to object’s surface that, consequently, leads to the simultaneous appearance of several regions with different brightness. To address this problem, we proposed a method of synthesizing extended dynamic range images based on changing the exposure time of the camera and adjusting the illumination of the projector light source so that 3D point coordinates in both bright and dark areas could be obtained through the process. The dual-camera structured light experimental model and the lightcrafter 4500 projector are synchronized through the trigger, using the gray code in combination with the line-shift projection pattern. Experimental results show that the proposed method can precisely reconstruct the 3D surface of mechanical details, while providing higher performance than the state-of-the-art methods.

Optimal Projection Pattern for Active Visual Servoing (AVS)

<p>Visual servo control uses images that are obtained by a camera for robotic control. This study focuses on the problem of positioning a target object using a robotic manipulator with image-based visual servo (IBVS) control. To perform the positioning task, the image-based visual servoing requires visual features that can be extracted from the appearance of the target object. Therefore, a positioning error tends to increase especially for textureless objects, such as industrial parts. Since it is difficult to extract differences of the visual features between current and goal images. To solve these problems, this paper presents a novel visual servoing named ``Active Visual Servoing." Active Visual Servoing (AVS) projects patterned light onto the target object using a projector. The design of the projection pattern affects the positioning error. AVS uses an optimal pattern which is theoretically derived and maximizes differences between current and goal images. The experimental results show that the proposed active visual servoing method reduces the positioning error by more than 97% compared to conventional image-based visual servoing.</p>

Optimal Projection Pattern for Active Visual Servoing (AVS)

<p>Visual servo control uses images that are obtained by a camera for robotic control. This study focuses on the problem of positioning a target object using a robotic manipulator with image-based visual servo (IBVS) control. To perform the positioning task, the image-based visual servoing requires visual features that can be extracted from the appearance of the target object. Therefore, a positioning error tends to increase especially for textureless objects, such as industrial parts. Since it is difficult to extract differences of the visual features between current and goal images. To solve these problems, this paper presents a novel visual servoing named ``Active Visual Servoing." Active Visual Servoing (AVS) projects patterned light onto the target object using a projector. The design of the projection pattern affects the positioning error. AVS uses an optimal pattern which is theoretically derived and maximizes differences between current and goal images. The experimental results show that the proposed active visual servoing method reduces the positioning error by more than 97% compared to conventional image-based visual servoing.</p>

Transneuronal Retinal Projections to V1 Form “Minicolumns” in Layer 1: Comparison with Projections to Layer 4 in Normal and Visually Deprived Long Evans Rats

Lattice-like patterns in layer 1 (L1) of primary visual cortex (V1) of mice have been demonstrated following injections of tracers into the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus (Ji et al., 2015). To distinguish the ipsilateral and contralateral components of this projection, we made unilateral intravitreal injections of the transneuronal tracer WGA-HRP in Long Evans rats, a strain in which projections to L4 form ocular dominance columns (ODCs, Laing et al., 2015). We have shown that ODCs form by postnatal day 10 (P10), and that they are susceptible to monocular enucleation and monocular deprivation by eyelid suture during development (Olavarria et al., 2021). We now show that lattice-like patterns in L1 are also visible by P10, but unlike the normal contralateral projection to L4, which does not encroach into ipsilateral eye territory, the contralateral projections to layer 1 in P10 and adult normal rats are distributed throughout V1, including ipsilateral eye territories. Moreover, this pattern does not change in visually deprived rats, suggesting that L1 projections are not susceptible to visual deprivation as L4 projections are. Notably, contralateral projections to L4 in visually deprived rats do encroach into ipsilateral eye territory, resembling the projection pattern in L1. Together, these observations suggest that geniculate projections to L1 or L4 differ not only in the cues guiding their target selection, but also in cues determining their distribution within V1, and the way they respond to visual deprivation during development.

High-throughput mapping of single-cell molecular and projection architecture of neurons by retrograde barcoded labelling

Deciphering mesoscopic connectivity of the mammalian brain is a pivotal step in neuroscience. Most imaging-based conventional neuroanatomical tracing methods identify area-to-area or sparse single neuronal labeling information. Although recently developed barcode-based connectomics has been able to map a large number of single-neuron projections efficiently, there is a missing link in single-cell connectome and transcriptome. Here, combining single-cell RNA sequencing technology, we established a retro-AAV barcode-based multiplexed tracing method called MEGRE-seq (Multiplexed projEction neuRons retroGrade barcodE), which can resolve projectome and transcriptome of source neurons simultaneously. Using the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as a proof-of-concept neocortical region, we investigated projection patterns of its excitatory neurons targeting five canonical brain regions, as well as corresponding transcriptional profiles. Dedicated, bifurcated or collateral projection patterns were inferred by digital projectome. In combination with simultaneously recovered transcriptome, we find that certain projection pattern has a preferential layer or neuron subtype bias. Further, we fitted single-neuron two-modal data into a machine learning-based model and delineated gene importance by each projection target. In summary, we anticipate that the new multiplexed digital connectome technique is potential to understand the organizing principle of the neural circuit by linking projectome and transcriptome.