Researchers image fruit-fly larva’s nervous system
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029114
Nature : For the first time, the neural activity of an organism’s entire central nervous system (CNS)—that of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) larva—has been recorded on video. Researchers modified the larva’s neurons to make the cells fluoresce as they fire. After removing the CNS from the larva, they used a high-speed light-sheet microscope with multiple-view imaging to capture the firing of neurons in the brain and the electrochemical surge that then travels through the organism’s body from top to tail. The effort marks the next step toward imaging neural activity throughout an entire organism. In 2013 the researchers imaged the brain of a zebrafish larva, and they hope to step up their operation to work on mouse embryos next.
