Publication
Exploring innate locomotion in Drosophila melanogaster
| Summary: | Locomotion is a central part of an animal’s life. Innate locomotion, the instinctive ability to walk without any prior experience, is crucial for an animal’s early survival. While this behaviour is “hard-wired” into neural circuits, it’s initial form often requires refinement to allow for a full optimized locomotion. The characteristics of this early movement, as well as the mechanisms responsible for this refinement remain poorly understood. Here we show newly eclosed Drosophila melanogaster can be used as a model to investigate innate locomotion. Using high-resolution kinematics, we described the early walking of newly eclosed flies, as well as their motor activity. Furthermore, we explored the synapse maturation after eclosion of a single motor neuron. Here we found that certain parameters, such as speed and swing duration, show a fast optimization within hours, being conserved across sex and genetic backgrounds, although other features, such as duty factor and body displacement ratio exhibited a higher variability. Surprisingly this optimization occurred alongside a sharp decrease in overall motor activity following an initial burst of activity after eclosion. Lastly, we also found a significant post-eclosion synapse maturation of a single motor neuron innervating a muscle on the distal tibia. Our work supports that innate locomotion is not complete but undergoes a rapid optimization process, that seems to be mostly conserved among sex and genetic backgrounds, and may be underpinned by the structural maturation of the motor circuits. This work introduces a new model that provides a foundation for dissecting the physical, genetic and neural mechanisms that underlie innate behaviour. |
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| Main Authors: | Lontrão, Mafalda Rebelo |
| Subject: | Drosophila melanogaster Innate locomotion Maturation Kinematics quantification |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | master thesis |
| Access type: | restricted access |
| Associated institution: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Language: | English |
| Origin: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Summary: | Locomotion is a central part of an animal’s life. Innate locomotion, the instinctive ability to walk without any prior experience, is crucial for an animal’s early survival. While this behaviour is “hard-wired” into neural circuits, it’s initial form often requires refinement to allow for a full optimized locomotion. The characteristics of this early movement, as well as the mechanisms responsible for this refinement remain poorly understood. Here we show newly eclosed Drosophila melanogaster can be used as a model to investigate innate locomotion. Using high-resolution kinematics, we described the early walking of newly eclosed flies, as well as their motor activity. Furthermore, we explored the synapse maturation after eclosion of a single motor neuron. Here we found that certain parameters, such as speed and swing duration, show a fast optimization within hours, being conserved across sex and genetic backgrounds, although other features, such as duty factor and body displacement ratio exhibited a higher variability. Surprisingly this optimization occurred alongside a sharp decrease in overall motor activity following an initial burst of activity after eclosion. Lastly, we also found a significant post-eclosion synapse maturation of a single motor neuron innervating a muscle on the distal tibia. Our work supports that innate locomotion is not complete but undergoes a rapid optimization process, that seems to be mostly conserved among sex and genetic backgrounds, and may be underpinned by the structural maturation of the motor circuits. This work introduces a new model that provides a foundation for dissecting the physical, genetic and neural mechanisms that underlie innate behaviour. |
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Funded activities
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