Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain

Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analysing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative<sup>1-6</sup>, but nevertheless inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of a whole brain containing 5 × 10<sup>7</sup> chemical synapses<sup>7</sup> between 139,255 neurons reconstructed from an adult female Drosophila melanogaster<sup>8,9</sup>. The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemilineages and predictions of neurotransmitter identities<sup>10-12</sup>. Data products are available for download, programmatic access and interactive browsing and have been made interoperable with other fly data resources. We derive a projectome-a map of projections between regions-from the connectome and report on tracing of synaptic pathways and the analysis of information flow from inputs (sensory and ascending neurons) to outputs (motor, endocrine and descending neurons) across both hemispheres and between the central brain and the optic lobes. Tracing from a subset of photoreceptors to descending motor pathways illustrates how structure can uncover putative circuit mechanisms underlying sensorimotor behaviours. The technologies and open ecosystem reported here set the stage for future large-scale connectome projects in other species.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2024-10-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07558-y
Citations
447
Primary Topic
Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
114.82
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article

Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain

Claire McKellar, Dodam Ih, Eric Perlman, David Deutsch et al.
447 citations
Nature
Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
114.82
article

Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain

Claire McKellar, Dodam Ih, Eric Perlman, David Deutsch, Marissa Sorek, Manuel Castro, Sergiy Popovych, Nils Eckstein, Szi-chieh Yu, Yijie Yin, Thomas Macrina, Krzysztof Kruk, Philipp Schlegel, Sven Dorkenwald, Runzhe Yang, Jan Funke, Jay Gager, H. Sebastian Seung, Nico Kemnitz, Jingpeng Wu, R. A. Morey, Doug Bland, Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis, Shang Mu, Davi D. Bock, Akhilesh Halageri, Kai Kuehner, Amy Sterling, Oluwaseun Ogedengbe, Katharina Eichler, Arie Matsliah, Casey M Schneider-Mizell, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Eric Mitchell, Marta Costa, Mala Murthy, Forrest Collman, Barak Nehoran, Albert Lin, Derrick Brittain, J. Alexander Bae, Kisuk Lee, Zhen Jia, Ran Lu, Will Silversmith, Chris S. Jordan
article en
447 citations

Abstract

Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analysing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative<sup>1-6</sup>, but nevertheless inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of a whole brain containing 5 × 10<sup>7</sup> chemical synapses<sup>7</sup> between 139,255 neurons reconstructed from an adult female Drosophila melanogaster<sup>8,9</sup>. The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemilineages and predictions of neurotransmitter identities<sup>10-12</sup>. Data products are available for download, programmatic access and interactive browsing and have been made interoperable with other fly data resources. We derive a projectome-a map of projections between regions-from the connectome and report on tracing of synaptic pathways and the analysis of information flow from inputs (sensory and ascending neurons) to outputs (motor, endocrine and descending neurons) across both hemispheres and between the central brain and the optic lobes. Tracing from a subset of photoreceptors to descending motor pathways illustrates how structure can uncover putative circuit mechanisms underlying sensorimotor behaviours. The technologies and open ecosystem reported here set the stage for future large-scale connectome projects in other species.

NatureVol. 634(8032)
University of Vermont (US), Champalimaud Foundation (PT), West Virginia University (US), California Institute of Technology (US), Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Allen Institute for Brain Science (US), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US), University of Bonn (DE), Harvard University (US), Seoul National University (KR), Mount Holyoke College (US), Inserm (FR), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of California, Merced (US), University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus (PR), University of California, Los Angeles (US), The University of Queensland (AU), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (GB), Janelia Research Campus (US), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), Princeton University (US), Université Côte d'Azur (FR), Cornell University (US), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Würzburg (DE), University of Mindanao (PH), Aware Global Hospital (IN), The Francis Crick Institute (GB), Yale University (US), National Dong Hwa University (TW), University of Florida (US), Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (KR), University of Oxford (GB), Engineering Data Management (US), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (GB), Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (US), Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center (TW), Health Awareness (United States) (US), Büchi Labortechnik (CH), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (DE), Allen Institute (US), IIT@Harvard (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Drexel University (US), Freie Universität Berlin (DE), Columbia University (US), Rockefeller University (US), Sungkyunkwan University (KR), Newcastle University (GB), RWTH Aachen University (DE), University of Haifa (IL), Leipzig University (DE), University of California, Berkeley (US), Stanford University (US)
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Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
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