Conflicting views exist of how circuits of the antennal lobe, the insect equivalent of the olfactory bulb, translate input from olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) into projection-neuron (PN) output. Synaptic connections between ORNs and PNs are one-to-one, yet PNs are more broadly tuned to odors than ORNs. The basis for this difference in receptive range remains unknown. Analyzing a Drosophila mutant lacking ORN input to one glomerulus, we show that some of the apparent complexity in the antennal lobe's output arises from lateral, interglomerular excitation of PNs. We describe a previously unidentified population of cholinergic local neurons (LNs) with multiglomerular processes. These excitatory LNs respond broadly to odors but exhibit little glomerular specificity in their synaptic output, suggesting that PNs are driven by a combination of glomerulus-specific ORN afferents and diffuse LN excitation. Lateral excitation may boost PN signals and enhance their transmission to third-order neurons in a mechanism akin to stochastic resonance.
Pubmed ID: 17289577 RIS Download
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Software tool for automated microscope acquisition, device control, and image analysis. Used for integrating dissimilar fluorescent microscope hardware and peripherals into a single custom workstation, while providing all the tools needed to perform analysis of acquired images. Offers user friendly application modules for analysis such as cell signaling, cell counting, and protein expression.
View all literature mentionsFlytrap is an interactive database for displaying gene expression patterns, in particular P(GAL4) patterns, via an intuitive WWW based interface. This development consists of two components, the first being the HTML interface to the database and the second, a tool-kit for constructing and maintaining the database. The browser component of the project is entirely platform independent; based on javascript and HTML and therefore only requires a "standard" browser. This is to facilitate CD-ROM distribution and off-line browsing. Whether on-line or on CD, the basic browser structure does not reply on any server based scripts. Basic searching is now available. The search page uses javascript and will work off-line (i.e. from a CD-ROM copy). The construction tool-kit is UNIX based and requires an on-line web server. The tool-kit is used to compile the HTML browser interface from a simple database. The tool-kit part comprises a forms based HTML interface to the datasets allowing new information to b e added and updated very simply. We are also developing a java interface for the tool-kit that will enable us to edit and annotate images on-line. The basic browser interface is complete and a demonstration version can be accessed via the website. The first working version of the tool-kit is now on-line and is available for use.
View all literature mentionsThis monoclonal targets choline acetyltransferase
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