【J Vis Exp】The ability to selectively manipulate defined microglial subpopulations in awake, freely moving mice provides a valuabl

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited degenerative retinal disease that can lead to irreversible blindness. Optogenetic therapy has shown potential for restoring visual function at late stages of th...

Read the full paper: Chemo-Optogenetic Control of Protein Activities in Living Cells Using Photoswitchable Molecular Glues

Today's cochlear implants use electrical impulses to stimulate the auditory nerve. This enables many people who are deaf or have severe hearing loss to understand speech. The electrical current spread...

The genome folds inside the nucleus into distinct structures across multiple levels of organization. Topologically associating domains (TADs) are a ubiquitous architectural feature of genomes delineat...

Neurons acquire polarity by specifying one neurite as the axon, whereas the others become dendrites. But how this fundamental asymmetry is established remains unclear1. Neuronal polarization has been thought to rely primarily on growth cones that sense external cues2. Here we show that growth cones alone do not direct this process and that the soma acts as a central organizer of neuronal polarization. Using live imaging and genetic loss-of-function approaches in vivo, combined with optogenetic control and local cytoskeletal perturbations in cultured neurons, we uncover a soma-initiated oscillatory program that primes axon selection. Periodic actin branching that depends on the actin-related protein 2/3 (ARP2/3) complex at the soma remodels a global actomyosin network, thereby generating an actin wave that retracts neurites before propagating into a single neurite tip. Exposure to this wave relaxes local actomyosin contractility, which drives a transient microtubule-based prot

Flies were housed at 25 °C and 50–65% relative humidity on a 12 h light/12 h dark cycle, except for animals used in optogenetics experiments, which were reared in darkness. Stocks used for behavioural experiments were reared on standard molasses food, 2P imaging lines were reared on Würzburg food for at least five generations to increase animal robustness, and flies expressing optogenetic actuators were kept on sugar-yeast food to prevent intake of the cofactor retinal. Fly stocks used were as follows: D. melanogaster stocks 71G01-Gal4 (39599) and UAS-GCaMP6s (42746) were obtained from Bloomington Stock Center. Canton-S (G. Maimon, Rockefeller University), CO4n and RG11n (J. Pool, University of Wisconsin-Madison), UAS-CsChrimson (V. Jayaraman, Janelia Research Campus) and VT029314 (LC10a)-LexA, LexAop-GCaMP6s (I. Ribeiro and B. Dickson, Janelia Research Campus) were generously shared by the indicated colleagues. Wild-type D. erecta (14021-0224.01), w− D. erecta (14021-0224.07) and D. yakuba (14021-0261.00) were obtained from the Cornell Stock Center. Ruta lab D. simulans, D. orena (D. Stern, Janelia Research Campus), D. erecta 71G01-Gal4, UAS-GCaMP6s, UAS-CsChrimson, ppk23-mutant and D. erecta as well as D. yakuba Dsx-Gal4 (Y. Ding, University of Pennsylvania) were previously generated36 or shared by the indicated colleagues. D. erecta VT029314 (LC10a)-Gal4, Fru-Gal4, Orco-Gal4 (for labelling,...

The device could be used to study the neuronal basis of complex social behaviors in natural environments.