Intercellular Interactions Promoting Neural Circuit Formation and Function
| dc.contributor.advisor | Doe, Chris | |
| dc.contributor.author | Heckman, Emily | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-26T15:30:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-10-26T15:30:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-10-26 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The function of the nervous system – from perception to behavior - relies on the orderlyformation of neural circuits during development. Given that there are billions of neurons in the human brain, and thus billions of potential circuit configurations, it remains enigmatic how cells direct their processes to specific brain regions, identify preferred synaptic partners, and form synaptic connections often with subcellular precision. Moreover, with billions of cells executing such a complex developmental sequence, what safeguards are in place to ensure that the final function of the nervous system is robust to variability in any of these steps? In this dissertation, I describe the establishment of a model system in the larval fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, that enabled the investigation of these questions in the context of a relatively simple nervous system. Within this model system, I have found that (i) axon guidance cues are sufficient to direct the targeting of axons to different postsynaptic subcellular domains, (ii) a presynaptic neuron is competent to form functional synapses across a range of possible subcellular dendritic domains, (iii) the presence of a presynaptic axon can promote the local elongation of postsynaptic dendrites, and (iv) presynaptic activity levels can negatively regulate postsynaptic dendrite elongation neuron-wide. These simple strategies can be employed to form circuits with consistent cellular memberships, and furthermore, encode flexible cellular responses to variation in presynaptic targeting and synaptic strengths to ultimately enable robust nervous system function. This dissertation contains previously published and co-authored material. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27763 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | axon | en_US |
| dc.subject | circuit | en_US |
| dc.subject | dendrite | en_US |
| dc.subject | Drosophila | en_US |
| dc.subject | synapse | en_US |
| dc.title | Intercellular Interactions Promoting Neural Circuit Formation and Function | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Biology | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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