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Untangling the wires: development of sparse, distributed connectivity in the mushroom body calyx

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Abstract

Appropriate perception and representation of sensory stimuli pose an everyday challenge to the brain. In order to represent the wide and unpredictable array of environmental stimuli, principle neurons of associative learning regions receive sparse, combinatorial sensory inputs. Despite the broad role of such networks in sensory neural circuits, the developmental mechanisms underlying their emergence are not well understood. As mammalian sensory coding regions are numerically complex and lack the accessibility of simpler invertebrate systems, we chose to focus this review on the numerically simpler, yet functionally similar, Drosophila mushroom body calyx. We bring together current knowledge about the cellular and molecular mechanisms orchestrating calyx development, in addition to drawing insights from literature regarding construction of sparse wiring in the mammalian cerebellum. From this, we formulate hypotheses to guide our future understanding of the development of this critical perceptual center.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Shahara Miah and Donnell Williams for their assistance compiling literature. We also thank Caitlin Paisley and Cameron Prigge for critical reading of this manuscript. EJC is an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience and the Rita Allen Foundation Milton Cassell Scholar.

Funding

This work was made possible by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01DC018032) to EJC and a University of Michigan Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) (K12-GM111725) to VMP.

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Correspondence to E. Josephine Clowney.

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Puñal, V.M., Ahmed, M., Thornton-Kolbe, E.M. et al. Untangling the wires: development of sparse, distributed connectivity in the mushroom body calyx. Cell Tissue Res 383, 91–112 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-020-03386-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-020-03386-4

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