Scientists complete wiring diagram of adult male central nervous system after nearly 20 years of research. Drosophila (Drosophila melanogaster).
A wiring diagram of the central nervous system of an adult male fruit fly will help researchers better understand how the brain enables complex behaviors, from sensory perception to action. Image credit: FlyEM Project Team, HHMI Janelia Research Campus / Cambridge Connectomics Group / Google Research / Philip Hubbard, HHMI Janelia Research Campus.
“We felt that we would not be able to understand the brain to a satisfactory level without wiring diagrams, but this was not a widely accepted idea.” said Dr. Jerry Rubin is the founding executive director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus.
“We knew it was possible. It was a well-defined problem. We just had to figure out how to make it happen.”
of Newly completed connectome This is the first map of the entire central nervous system of a male fruit fly.
This map shows the 166,700 neurons and millions of connections between them that make up the fly’s brain and ventral nerve cord.
This is the first connectome assembled for this complex central nervous system. partial map — “Half-brain” that covers about half of a fly’s brain — The same team announced in 2020.
“Humans have a certain lack of imagination, but eventually they see something and say, ‘I get it,’ and that’s why this is so important,” Dr. Rubin said.
“This is what the half-brain has done for neuroscientists by showing us what we can learn from the connectome.”
“It just changed people’s attitudes about what’s possible.”
This new map will allow scientists to track the complete neural circuits that link sensory perception and behavior, allowing them to determine how flies perform important behaviors such as moving toward a goal.
It will also allow researchers to compare male and female brains and understand complex social behaviors (such as mating and aggression) that can differ between the sexes.
“For me, I’ve been working on this longer than I’ve worked on any other scientific goal in my life, and I’m ready to stop and think about something else,” Dr. Rubin said.
“But there was an immense sense of pride and accomplishment in the group of people we brought together here, and that made it a success.”
a paper A description of the results will be published in a journal. cell.
_____
stuart berg others. complete sexual dimorphism Drosophila Male central nervous system connectome. cellpublished online on September 3, 2026. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.015
Source: www.sci.news
